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Migrant ‘exchange:’ Turkey accepts mass returns, but sends Syrians to Europe Migrant ‘exchange’: Turkey accepts mass returns but sends Syrians to Europe
(about 2 hours later)
PARIS —Turkey offered Tuesday to ease Europe’s migrant crisis with a two-way deal: agreeing to accept the mass return of people who struggled to reach European shores, but demanding that Europe take Syrian refu­gees from camps and other sites in Turkey. PARIS —The European Union and Turkey struck a preliminary deal Tuesday to block the vast waves of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea, effectively agreeing to slam shut the backdoor into Europe still being traversed by tens of thousands of asylum seekers fleeing war in the Middle East.
The tentative pact, reached in Brussels after hard bargaining from Turkey, marks a major shift among European nations that last year opened their borders to the huge flow of migrants but now have blocked their way. The deal, to be ironed out over the next 10 days, could dramatically alter the region’s refugee crisis, sealing off the single biggest corridor for irregular migration into Europe. From across the developing world but especially the Middle East, more than a million desperate people over the past 12 months have rushed to the jagged Turkish coast, where a new life in Europe is only a short if risky journey west by smuggler’s raft.
For Turkey, meanwhile, the desperation in Europe gives it rare leverage. A chief goal is to clear out huge refu­gee camps for some of the more than 2.7 million Syrians who have fled to Turkey to escape the five-year conflict. Turkey also used the summit to pry more aid money from the European Union and press its bid for membership in the bloc. To keep the migrants from their doorstep, the Europeans are now willing to pay — a lot. Already promised some $3.3 billion to do more to contain the crisis, Turkey — a nation whose authoritarian leader is cracking down on freedoms at home — would now be paid double that.
[Gallery: Migrants stranded as pathways in Europe blocked] European leaders lauded the agreement as a means of turning back economic migrants while also “saving” Syrians from the clutches of unscrupulous human traffickers. But the United Nations and rights activists were already decrying it as a potentially serious — even illegal — blow to refugee rights. It could, critics warned, block the path to sanctuary in the West for untold thousands of legitimate asylum seekers.
Under the deal, all newly arrived economic migrants and Syrian refugees who reach Greece by boat would be sent back to Turkey. But for each Syrian among those returned, the European Union would be required to accept a different Syrian refugee in a “one-for-one” exchange.
An E.U. official said the deal would not affect the hundreds of thousands in Europe whose applications for asylum have yet to be processed.
Details are still under discussion, but the plan could mean that some Syrians would face a dizzying passage: reaching Europe — usually aided by smuggling networks — then being sent to Turkey and finally being allowed back into the European Union at some point.
The agreement also seeks to reinforce last week’s message to migrants from European Council President Donald Tusk: “Don’t come.”
Rights groups and others immediately raised questions over the pact, asking whether it violated international norms that call for asylum claims to be heard before possible deportation.
Pressure was high for an accord, with migrants stranded at blocked borders or crowded into makeshift encampments in Greece while thousands more cross the Aegean Sea. Since last year, more than 1 million migrants, asylum seekers and others have poured into Europe from places including war-ravaged Syria and Iraq.
At its most abstract, the agreement was a means of curbing “irregular migration,” a phrase the encompasses job seekers and others not fleeing imminent peril. In a statement, E.U. leaders said that these “bold moves” would crack down on smugglers and protect the continent’s external borders.
[Doors slamming shut across Europe]
“We need to break the link between getting in a boat and getting settlement in Europe,” the statement said.
At a more practical level, however, the deal raises many logistical and legal questions.
In theory, its open-ended language could require the European Union to resettle tens of thousands — and even hundreds of thousands — down the line.
Resettlement on such a potentially large scale would also depend on the participation of member states across the 28-nation European Union. But such consensus is hardly guaranteed.
Some E.U. states have strongly objected to the mandatory quota proposal that some diplomats implied would accompany the new policy. In response, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban threatened a veto.
Legally, the deal also risks subverting traditional asylum procedures, which require that any application must be considered and that applicants cannot be sent to countries without adequate protection.
Critics insist that Turkey falls short of offering a haven while asylum and refu­gee claims are sorted out.
Although Turkey ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention, it recognizes refugee status only for citizens of certain countries. Only Syrians among the current crop of refugees can currently claim such status, leaving others who have fled conflict zones such as Eritrea, Iraq and Afghanistan without any special protection.
“We know, we’ve documented, that Turkey is not a safe place for asylum seekers and refugees,” said Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International’s deputy Europe director. “We’ve documented people being sent all the way to the south of Turkey, held in incommunicado detention, and sent back to Syria.”“We know, we’ve documented, that Turkey is not a safe place for asylum seekers and refugees,” said Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International’s deputy Europe director. “We’ve documented people being sent all the way to the south of Turkey, held in incommunicado detention, and sent back to Syria.”
The U.N. refugee agency also expressed concern about a possible “blanket returns” from the European Union — a possible violation of international law. [Turkey to E.U.: If you want to send us your migrants, send money, too]
The agency’s Europe bureau director, Vincent Cochetel, told reporters in Geneva that it was misleading to emphasize “irregular migrants” because 91 percent of those arriving in Greece are from war-torn countries such as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Under the deal, all new migrants — including Syrian and Iraqis — found at sea or who reach Greece by boat would be sent back to Turkey. But for each Syrian among those returned, the European Union would be required to accept another Syrian directly from Turkish refugee camps in a “one-for-one” exchange.
For Turkey, the summit ultimately provided a chance to exert considerable leverage on a decades-long push for E.U. membership as well as expedited visas for Turks seeking to live and work in Europe. Only Syrians, and not even Iraqis fleeing the Islamic State, appear to qualify for that direct relocation program. Even Syrians who risk the sea and are turned back could be blacklisted from legal resettlement in Europe, providing an extra incentive for migrants to avoid even trying to cross the Aegean.
Just days after the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seized control of Zaman, the country's largest newspaper, E.U. leaders seemed willing to look the other way in order to broker a deal. On the Greek island of Lesbos, the single most popular arrival spot for asylum seekers trying to reach Europe, boats continued to come ashore Tuesday despite the warnings from E.U. leaders that people should stay in Turkey. In the island’s sprawling and fast-filling camps, new arrivals said they had heard that the door to Europe was closing and that people would be turned away. But they said they had come anyway because they felt they had no other choice.
The E.U. statement mentioned only that European leaders discussed “the situation of the media in Turkey” but offered no further details. “We need a future. We need safety,” said Abid el-Mohsin, a 23-year-old from Syria. The Islamic State murdered his brother, he said, and he was not going to stay to meet the same fate. So he fled.
E.U. leaders plan to meet again March 18 to discuss the agreement's terms. [Europe’s harsh new message for migrants: ‘Do not come’]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the deal represents "a breakthrough if it is to be realized, if it is to be implemented." In exchange for taking back migrants, Turkey — already hosting some 2.7 million Syrian refugees on its soil — is driving a hard bargain, and it surprised its European counterparts at the start of the talks on Monday with further demands. In addition to new aid, Ankara also wants accelerated talks on joining the European Union — a bid opposed by many current members — as well as visa-free travel within the E.U. for Turkish citizens. European nations, facing a strong domestic backlash against migrants, may have little choice but to agree.
Anthony Faiola in Berlin contributed to this report. The deal is a “breakthrough, if it is realized, if it is implemented,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Critics immediately accused the Europeans of political expediency by agreeing to a deal that could only strengthen the authoritarian rule of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His government recently seized control of the country’s largest newspaper, and its crackdown on dissent in Kurdish pockets of the country has raised alarm over fast-deteriorating human rights.
“I think this is a no-good deal for the E.U., because I don’t think we are working for a stable Turkey in the future,” said Marc Pierini, former E.U. ambassador to Turkey from 2006 to 2011. “We’re only inviting the Turkish leadership to crack down on the media or any opponents.”
The deal, however, amounted to a compromise. European Council President Donald Tusk, backed by a number of hard-line nations, sought to include strong language in the deal declaring the migrant route officially “closed.” But Merkel, risking a backlash at home where anti-migrant sentiment is growing, forced through a change that left out that language, and inserted the “one-to-one” exchange deal with Turkey that at least allowed some Syrians a shot at direct relocation into Europe, according to the think tank Open Europe.
[Doors slamming shut across Europe]
Yet even as Tusk staged a road show across Europe to sell the deal, it risked coming apart. In theory, its open-ended language could require Europe to resettle tens of thousands — and even hundreds of thousands — of Syrians directly from Turkey.
Europe so far has failed dismally in its effort to “legally relocate” Syrians, Iraqis and other asylum seekers from Greece and Turkey. Last year, European nations promised 160,000 slots, but fewer than 4,000 have been filled. Some countries, such as Hungary, have effectively reneged completely. Its leader, Viktor Orban, has already promised to veto the new deal should it compel all E.U. nations to accept Syrians.
If the legal routes to Europe via Turkey do not materialize — and even if they do — experts warned that asylum seekers would be pushed toward riskier alternatives. That includes the dangerous route to Europe via war-torn Libya and a long stretch of sea to Italy where thousands of migrants have already died.
“This can only work if refugees have a real chance to get to the E.U. directly,” said Dietrich Thränhardt, a migration expert at Münster University. “If this isn’t the case, they’ll try to find other ways.”
Faiola reported from Berlin. Griff Witte in Lesbos, Greece, and Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin contributed to this report.
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