Turkey forcibly returning Syrian refugees

Around 100 expelled daily: AI

ISTANBUL, April 1, (AP): Amnesty International says Turkey has forcibly returned hundreds of Syrian refugees to their homeland since mid-January. It said this practice exposes “fatal flaws” in an agreement between Turk and the European Union.

The organization says its research on the Turkish-Syrian border suggests that around 100 Syrians — who often have not registered in Turkey — are expelled from Turkey each day.

Advocacy groups are concerned that the deal, which aims to stem the flow of illegal migrants and goes into effect April 4, threatens the rights of asylum seekers, and they question whether Turkey is a safe country for them.

The EU-Turkey deal stipulates the return to Turkey of any Syrian refugee arriving on the Greek islands, to be offset by resettling a Turkey-based Syrian in the EU.

“Far from pressuring Turkey to improve the protection it offers Syrian refugees, the EU is in fact incentivizing the opposite,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s director for Europe and Central Asia.

“Having witnessed the creation of Fortress Europe, we are now seeing the copycat construction of Fortress Turkey.