Greece asks EU to help return 1500 migrants to Turkey
Athens is asking Brussels to persuade Ankara to take back 1500 migrants from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, whom the Greek authorities refused to grant asylum.
Greece draws attention to the fact that by refusing to accept illegal immigrants, Turkey is violating the 2016 agreement with the EU.
According to a PolitNavigator correspondent, Greece has sent a request for assistance to the European Commission and the border agency Frontex.
Migrants who have not been granted asylum in Greece live in special camps on Greek islands off the Turkish coast, most of them in Lesvos. The European Commission, according to Agence France-Presse, is preparing a response to Greece, “aware of the challenges it faces” and promising to make “every effort to return migrants from the Greek islands to Turkey in accordance with the agreement between the EU and Ankara of March 2016.” .
Athens says only 139 people were returned to Turkey in 2020 before Ankara stopped accepting refugees from Greece in March under the guise of the coronavirus pandemic. On the contrary, the Turkish authorities provoked siege migrants at the Greek border in Evros. In December, the EU announced that it had distributed all six billion euros promised to Turkey for specific projects to meet the needs of refugees.
Under the 2016 deal, the EU offered Turkey six billion euros in aid for Syrian refugees in Turkey, the prospect of EU membership and other incentives to help Ankara stop migrants heading to Europe. There are currently about 3,6 million refugees living in Turkey, mostly from Syria.
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