Brussels, 20/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 20 April, European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos presented a Commission report reviewing progress both in the European Union and Turkey on implementing the migration agreement that provides for sending migrants who arrive in Greece back to Turkey in exchange for resettling Syrian refugees in the EU from Turkey (see EUROPE 11535 and 11515).
However, the report also underlines some shortcomings. In particular, it notes that Turkey has not yet fulfilled the necessary conditions for non-Syrian asylum seekers to be sent back to Turkey from Greece, as stipulated in the EU-Turkey agreement of 18 March.
The Commission also states that Ankara must fulfil all its obligations in order to obtain the visa liberalisation regime at the end of June (the timetable agreed by both parties) for Turkish citizens wanting to visit the Schengen area.
The Commission will present a third report on Wednesday 4 May about the progress made by Turkey on the visa liberalisation regime and, if Ankara takes the necessary measures to satisfy the remaining criteria, the report will be accompanied by a legislative proposal to transfer Turkey to the list of countries exempt from the visa requirement. It will then be up to the European interior ministers to decide, by qualified majority, on a deadline - which could happen in June.
According to the Commission's report, since 4 April 325 migrants, who arrived in Greece illegally after 20 March (the date when implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement began) after travelling through Turkey, have now been sent back to Turkey. The Frontex agency has deployed 318 escort officers and 21 readmission experts to help support the returns operation. In addition, 25 Turkish liaison officers have been deployed in Greek crisis centres, and five Greek liaison officers have been deployed at arrival points in Turkey.
The initial resettlements of people from Turkey carried out under the agreement took place on 4 and 5 April. So far, 103 Syrian refugees have been resettled in the EU under the one-for-one principle. Greece has set up accelerated procedures for handling asylum applications from the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea - from the initial interview stage up to the appeal stage. According to the Commission, the programming and development of projects related to the facility for refugees in Turkey have also been accelerated.
Avramopoulos also asked the member states to come to Greece's aid more, “especially given the need to pay particular attention to children and vulnerable groups”. He stated that the countries of the EU should accelerate the relocation of asylum seekers currently in Greece (over 54,000 people are currently there) and reiterated the objective of relocating 6,000 people per month. Of the 106,000 places granted, only 1,263 people out have so far been relocated from Greece and Italy. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)