German ruling party criticizes Greece’s low deportation rate of refugees

German ruling party CDU has criticized Greece over a low rate of deportation of migrants to Turkey. The criticism came by Thorsten Frei, vice-chief of the conservative CDU/CSU parliamentary group and spokesman on migration issues. He accused Greece of “administrative failure.”

“The previous year, the number of arrivals in Greece almost doubled compared to 2018 with a little more than 60,000 people,” Frei said according to media reports, adding that ” in the second half of the year, in particular, arrivals had “increased rapidly.”

As a result, the Greek islands would be “overrun,” and the situation there could become unsustainable. “The current development unmistakably correlates with the fact that Turkey no longer consistently prevents landings,” Frei said.

He stressed that “the number of repatriations from Greece to Turkey had been in one direction for years: downwards.”

Only 1,995 refugees have been deported from Greece to Turkey since 2016, according to a report by the EU Commission. In the same period, 25,660 Syrians have been legally flown from Turkey to the EU, the report also shows.

While the crossings to the Greek islands in 2019 increased significantly according to the EU document with more than 60,100 – around 37,700 were transferred to the mainland – deportations continued to decrease. According to the Commission document, out of a total of those repatriated since 2016, most were flown to Turkey in 2016 (801) and 2017 (683). In 2018 there were only 322 and in 2019 only 189 people.

The low deportation rate is “a development that forced one to speak very frankly of administrative failure,” Frei reportedly added.

At least, he admitted that the “administrative failure was mainly  because of the support and assistance offered by the EU to Greece, was “unacceptable.”