Brussels, 21/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - In keeping with the agreement reached on Friday 18 March between the European Union and Turkey to tackle the migration crisis (see EUROPE 11515), the European Commission presented a legislative proposal on Monday 21 March. This proposal amends the decision adopted in September 2015 on the relocation of refugees and should help facilitate the allocation of a reserve of 54,000 places initially given to Hungary, as part of a new resettlement mechanism for Syrian refugees who have come from Turkey into the EU.
In practice, these 54,000 relocation places will be used by member states that want to resettle Syrian refugees currently in Turkey on their own respective territories. This will be done as part of a “one for one” exchange mechanism: a Syrian refugee that is sent from Turkey to the EU, for a Syrian migrant that has illegally arrived in the EU and is sent back to Turkey. The obligations of member states participating in this relocation mechanism will be worked out on a proportional basis.
These 54,000 places will be offered in addition to a first reserve of 18,000 places included in the decision for resettling refugees adopted in July 2015. This decision was taken by European Ministers for the Interior and is on a voluntary basis, which included just over 22,500 places of which 4,000 of them have already been granted.
The Europeans' objective, however, is to keep below the ceiling of 72,000 places, which would mean that the number of irregular arrivals would continue to be high in the EU. If the flows decline and disappear, it would therefore be the voluntary refugee readmission programme that would be applied and this is on a totally voluntary basis and for which no figures are provided.
On Sunday 20 March, the agreement between the EU and Turkey officially entered into force. Turkish officials and experts from the UN High Commission for Refugees are in Greece to prepare the operations. Under this agreement, people arriving in Greece irregularly through trafficking networks will not have the right to protection or submit demands for asylum. They will be immediately sent back to Turkey on the basis of the bilateral readmission agreement between Greece/Turkey. Those who arrive in the same way but who submit a request for asylum and are able to benefit from international protection, will see their requests swiftly examined in Greece. The Greek authorities will then be able to consider whether these people (even if they require protection) should have their asylum requests examined by Turkey, a country considered by Greece as a third safe country, for example (or the first possible country of asylum) and have their temporary protection status allocated there.
Appeals against this inadmissibility will be possible, for example, if the asylum seeker believes that s/he will not be safe in Turkey. The Commission explained that this appeal would therefore be suspensive. The asylum seeker would in effect be allowed to contest the use in his or her regard of the concept of safe third country and would be able to remain in Greece during the time that a decision is made on their case.
The logistical organisation for this will be considerable because returns of migrants from Greece to Turkey and the subsequent resettlements that occur in exchange are not expected to begin until 28 March, the period in which all the necessary experts will be sent into the field and for Greece to be able to amend its national legislation. Resettlements could possibly therefore begin on 4 April.
Irregular migrants who do not have the right to international protection will be put into closed centres and almost immediately sent back to Turkey (even if the Greek-Turkish readmission agreement stipulates a deadline of between 14-30 days); the asylum seekers to whom protection could be granted in Turkey will be given accommodation in open centres.
2,500 officials from member states to support Greece
A logistics meeting was held on Saturday 19 March in Athens, attended by the European Commission special coordinator appointed on 18 March, Maarten Verwey. Several member states have made a commitment in this connection to provide personnel to Greece whose needs have been estimated at 4,000 new personnel by the Commission divided between Greek personnel, member states and European agencies
(Frontex and EASO). Member states will be obliged to provide 2,500 individuals and several countries such as Germany and France have already announced reinforcements of 300 people for each country. Greece will need interpreters, police officers, as well as professional staff to process asylum requests.
Implementing the mechanism also has legal implications. To ensure that the system is as watertight as possible from a legal point of view, the Greek authorities will have to introduce swift legislative changes and provide these people with appropriate appeals procedures if they contest inadmissibility decisions, which would require a certain time to put the agreement into practice effectively.
The Turkish authorities will have to make legislative changes to ensure that all Syrian migrants or those not sent back to its territory for temporary protection, comply with standards from the Geneva Convention. They will also have to, above all, ensure by way of legislative amendments, that Syrians who have already received temporary protection in Turkey to not lose this status if they are sent back to Turkey after having left the territory.
The announcement of this agreement and the EU's closure to new migrants seeking to enter its borders will not, however, have any immediate effect. On Sunday 20 March, 700 arrivals were registered on the Greek islands. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Mathieu Bion)