Brussels, 01/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 1 April, the European Commission again defended the terms of the deal reached with Turkey on 18 March on the return to Turkey of asylum seekers whose applications are rejected by Greece. On the same day, the United Nations' High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) again issued serious warnings about the deal's legality.
The UNHCR urged both sides to ensure that all safeguards are put in place along the Greek and Turkish coastlines before any returns of asylum seekers are organised on 4 April, as planned under the agreement.
In the night of 31 March to 1 April, the Greek parliament partially adopted the legislative changes required by the agreement, such as offering asylum seekers whose applications are rejected genuine means of appeal. At lunchtime on Friday, the European Commission was hoping that the Vouli, the Greek parliament, meeting in full sitting, would be able to formally adopt the legislative changes that day.
The Turkish authorities have pledged to make the necessary changes, such as ensuring that the principle of non-refoulement of all immigrants is respected, said Commission spokespeople. Special European Commission coordinator Maarten Verwey has been in Ankara in recent days to negotiate the changes and is expected to have further meetings with Turkish interlocutors on 1 April.
The Commission at any rate said that everything would be up and running by 4 April to make the agreement legally irreproachable, and stressed that asylum seekers would not be sent back to Turkey if they could not have their protection status renewed or if they cannot obtain protection, said Mina Andreeva and Natasha Bertaud in response to questions raised by the UNHCR.
The “resettlement” strand of the agreement is also due to begin on 4 April in theory, at the same time as the first asylum seekers are returned, and a meeting of the joint resettlement committee, as the Commission calls it, was due to take place on 1 April to draw up a balance sheet of member states' commitments. A meeting took place on Thursday 31 March, attended by seven member states (Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Finland, Bulgaria and Czech Republic), said the spokesperson.
The Commission pointed out that it was planning to closely examine information in the press and the warnings from NGOs about mass return of Syrians by Turkey in the south of the country. It said it wanted to closely monitor information about clashes between migrants in Greek hotspots, but continued to state that the EU-Turkey deal would come into force on 4 April. Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos will travel to Ankara in this connection on 4 April.
The institution gave a briefing on the commitments made by member states, alongside Frontex and EASO, in terms of implementing the agreement. For the 2,500 individuals (of the 4,000 in total) who are supposed to be returned by the member states, the Frontex agency has already received 44 readmission experts and 700 returns officers, said Natasha Bertaud.
EASO has so far been promised 452 experts. Frontex agents will start to be deployed over the weekend and 32 experts will be deployed by EASO on 4 April.
According to figures from the Greek government, the number of refugees recorded in Greece stood at 51,393 on Thursday 31 March. The number of refugees on the islands stands at 5,337, and new arrivals were estimated at 377 in the morning of 31 March. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)