Migrants given strict deadline to reach Europe
Migrants have been given a 24- hour deadline to reach Europe after leaders announced anyone landing in Greece after midnight on Saturday would be swiftly deported.
A deadly scramble for the last boats over the Aegean to the Greek islands was expected to begin after a € 6 billion ($8.8 billion) aid-for-deportations deal with Turkey was agreed in Brussels.
Turkish police on Friday intercepted 3,000 migrants attempting to cross on land and sea in a major operation involving coast guard and helicopters, as Ankara at last showed a willingness to halt the human tide.
From Sunday morning, any asylum seeker who lands on the holiday islands including Kos, Lesbos and Chios will no longer be able to catch ferries to Athens, but will be swiftly interviewed by asylum officials or judges at new detention camps.
From April 4, deportations to Turkey will begin with leaders hoping the pro- cess will take no more than a few days.
Those that appeal their removal will be brought before Greek judges in rapid- fire court hearings.
“This is a herculean task facing us,” said Jean- Claude Juncker, the European Commission president.
“It is the largest challenge the European Commission has yet faced.” Many wonder how it can be achieved in a weekend, given the notoriously chaotic Greek administration.”
In return, Turkey will see fast-track procedures to get billions in aid to deal with Syrian refugees, unprecedented visa concessions for Turks to come to Europe and a re-energizing of its EU membership bid.
However, experts say the plan risks violating international law because Turkey is not a signatory to the Geneva Convention, which guarantees basic standards for asylum seekers who are sent to other countries.
Turkey currently deports would- be asylum seekers back to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, which is strictly forbidden in EU law.
“This is a dark day for the Refugee Convention, a dark day for Europe and a dark day for humanity,” said Amnesty International, adding the deal was “madness” that would only see deported migrants attempting fresh journeys to Europe.
For every Syrian that is deported from Greece, one will be sent from the camps directly to EU states excluding Britain by a quota scheme up to a maximum of 72,000. Beyond that, the scheme will be deemed to have failed.
With more than one million migrants arriving in Europe over the past year, EU leaders were desperate to clinch a deal with Turkey and heal deep rifts within the bloc, while relieving the pressure on Greece, which has borne the brunt of arrivals.