Asylum seekers are being rejected by the EU
On 27 February 2020, Turkey announced that it would no longer stop refugees trying to cross its borders into Europe, which have been closed since 2016.
Turkey hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees - more than any other country. And since December 2019, hundreds of thousands more people have fled towards the closed Turkish border in Syria’s Idlib Province, where the Syrian government is bombarding civilians with airstrikes.
European and other countries have failed to share responsibility for hosting the women, men and children who have fled their homes in Syria. Turkey says it can no longer cope with the number of refugees it hosts.
An inevitable result of the Turkish announcement was that desperate people who had been unlawfully trapped in Turkey since at least 2016 rushed to border crossings that were newly re-opened - but only on one side. What people found when they arrived were heavily armed Greek border guards, tear gas, rubber bullets and razor wire.
Greece has responded with a package of inhumane measures that violate EU and international law. Security forces have been firing tear gas and repelling dinghies trying to reach Greece’s shores.
The government has also temporarily suspended registration of asylum claims and said it will deport anyone who enters irregularly, without examining their cases. This is a violation of Greece’s responsibilities under the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees.
In March 2016 the EU and Turkey reached an agreement which aimed to return asylum-seekers who arrived on the Greek islands to Turkey. Turkey also agreed to prevent people leaving its territory for Europe. In return the EU has given Turkey billions of dollars.
This deal is deeply flawed, based on the false premise that Turkey is safe for asylum seekers. Nonetheless, Greece's asylum bodies have ruled in many cases that Turkey is a safe third country and provides effective protection to Syrian refugees and as a result many have been returned there.
Today thousands of women, men and children remain trapped in the Greek islands while they wait for a decision on their asylum claims. Many are sleeping in tents, braving cold weather and unsafe conditions.
EU leaders have openly supported Greece’s hostile approach. The President of the European Commission described Greece as Europe’s “shield” in deterring people from entering, and pledged to provide financial and material support along with the deployment of European border guards.
This rhetoric is extremely misleading. Europe doesn’t need to be shielded from people seeking safety. The refugees and migrants at the border are asking for help, and they are entitled to it under EU and international law.
Life is extremely difficult for refugees in Turkey. One problem is that Turkey doesn’t fully subscribe to international refugee law. In Turkey, for example, only European people can qualify for refugee status; for everyone else, protection is limited or conditional and it is not possible to get secure legal status.
There are many other problems. Only 1.5% of working-age Syrian refugees have work permits, which means they are unemployed or vulnerable to exploitation in informal jobs. Many Syrian people are denied their right to register and access basic services, with many provinces having halted all registration, including Istanbul.
Amnesty has also documented the Turkish authorities forcing people to return to Syria – beating them or threatening them into signing documents stating that they are returning “voluntarily.”
With the prospect of being forced back to a war zone looming, it’s not surprising that refugees would try to move on from Turkey to a safer place.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/03/greece-turkey-refugees-explainer/
The whole world is going insane, why is everyone rejecting asylum seekers?