EU Turkey Agreement

Editor’s Note:
We lead again this week with the “EU-Turkey Agreement” as it continues to generate serious concern, analysis, and action from agencies, NGOs and other actors in the European migrant-refugee crisis. Equally, we see it as establishing new and disconcerting precedents.

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UNHCR urges immediate safeguards to be in place before any returns begin under EU-Turkey deal
Briefing Notes, 1 April 2016
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 1 April 2016, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

UNHCR is today urging parties to the recent EU-Turkey agreement on refugees and migrants to ensure all safeguards are in place before any returns begin. This is in light of continued serious gaps in both countries.

UNHCR does not object to returns of people without protection needs and who have not asked for asylum, providing that human rights are adhered to.

Across Greece, which has been compelled to host people because of closed borders elsewhere in Europe, numerous aspects of the systems for receiving and dealing with people who may need international protection are still either not working or absent. There are currently around 51,000 refugees and migrants in the country, 5000 on the islands and 46,000 on the mainland. Recent arrivals spiked on 29th March at 766 after several days of arrivals averaging about 300 people a day.

On Lesvos, conditions have been deteriorating at the Moria “hotspot” facility, which since 20 March has been used to detain people pending a decision on deportation. There are now some 2,300 people there. This is above its stated capacity of 2,000. People are sleeping in the open, and food supply is insufficient. Anxiety and frustration is widespread. Making matters worse, many families have become separated, with family members now scattered across Greece – and presenting an additional worry should returns begin.

On Samos, at the Vathy hotspot, reception conditions have also been worsening. Sanitation is poor, there is little help available for persons with special needs, and food distributions are chaotic. There are currently up to 1,700 people staying at the Vial hotspot on Chios, which has a maximum capacity of 1,100. We are very worried about the situation there. Rioting last night left three people with stab injuries.

In line with its global policy on promoting alternatives to detention, UNHCR has had to suspend services at all closed facilities, with the exception of protection monitoring and providing information on asylum procedures.

Stranded groups await relocation on the mainland
On the mainland, where people who arrived before 20 March are staying, the situation is equally difficult. Refugees and migrants are spread across some 30 sites, many awaiting the chance of relocation. Conditions at the port of Piraeus and around Eidomeni near the border with former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are dismal.

The risk of panic and injury in these sites and others is real in the current circumstances. There have been further incidents reported in local media of fighting this week.

Without urgent further EU support, the limited capacity of the Greek asylum service to register and process asylum claims will create problems. Limited hours of registration, daily ceilings on registrations, a lack of access to the Skype system for registration set up by the Asylum Services, are at present adding to the anxiety.

In Turkey, UNHCR has requested access to people returned from Greece, to ensure people can benefit from effective international protection and to prevent risk of refoulement.

UNHCR has set out the safeguards that would be required for safe readmission from Greece to Turkey, most recently in a paper of 23 March. http://www.refworld.org/docid/56f3ee3f4.html. [see below]

Sea arrivals down in Greece, up in Italy
Sea arrivals in Greece for the first three months of 2016 are at over 150,700 albeit with lower arrivals in March http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/country.php?id=83.

Sea arrivals on the other main Mediterranean route – from North Africa to Italy -stand at 18,784. This represents a more than 80 per cent increase over the same period in 2015 (10,165 people), with March arrivals showing a four-fold increase http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/country.php?id=105. These are predominantly Nigerians, Gambians, Senegalese, Malians and other West African nationals. So far UNHCR is not seeing big increases in Syrians, Afghans, and Iraqis using this route. On Thursday, a boat carrying 22 Syrian and Somali nationals was reported to have arrived at Otranto in South-eastern Italy, having travelled from Greece.

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Legal considerations on the return of asylum-seekers and refugees from Greece to Turkey as part of the EU-Turkey Cooperation in Tackling the Migration Crisis under the safe third country and first country of asylum concept
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
23 March 2016 :: 8 pages, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/56f3ee3f4.html
[accessed 1 April 2016]
[Excerpts: Introduction and Conclusion]
1. Introduction
This paper sets out the legal considerations, based on international and European refugee and human rights law1 relevant for the return and readmission of persons in need of international protection from Greece to Turkey under the (proposed) EU-Turkey cooperation, as discussed during European Council meetings with Turkey on 7 and 17-18 March 2016.

The EU-Turkey cooperation inter alia foresees the return to Turkey of asylum-seekers and refugees who have entered Greece via Turkey. According to the European Commission (EC), such returns will be in accordance with international and European law. It is stated that the legal bases for these returns are found in the EU recast Asylum Procedures Directive (APD),2 in particular in the concept of ‘first country of asylum’ and the concept of ‘safe third country’ through an admissibility procedure.

It is said that applications for international protection by ‘Syrians’3 can be declared inadmissible by Greece under Article 33(1) and (2)(b) of the APD because Turkey can be considered a first country of asylum for ‘Syrians’ pursuant to Article 35(b) APD. Applications for international protection by ‘non-Syrians’ may be declared inadmissible by Greece under Article 33(1) and (2)(c) APD because Turkey can be regarded as a safe third country pursuant to Article 38 APD…

…2.4. Conclusion
International refugee law and European asylum legislation foresee the possibility of returning persons seeking and/or in need of international protection to a safe third country on the basis of the ‘first country of asylum’ or ‘safe third country’ concept. Strict substantive criteria and procedural safeguards, which are set out in the EU recast Asylum Procedures Directive, regulate the application of these concepts. Further, under the EU Dublin Regulation another member state may be responsible for examining the asylum application in particular on the basis of family unity and the best interests of the child, precluding return to a safe third country.