Brussels, 17/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - At a press conference in Greece on Tuesday 17 May, the Special Rapporteur of the United stations on migrants' rights, François Crépeau, expressed concerns at the detention conditions of migrants in the country and the lack of information these people are given. The Rapporteur was drawing preliminary conclusions from a forthcoming report on the subject, which will be presented in June 2017.
The UN Special Rapporteur on migrants' rights called for the end to the practice of detaining migrants arriving in Greece, on the basis of the EU-Turkey agreement, and underlined the legal fragility of this pact, which was designed to stem the inflow of migrants. “I call upon Greece to put an end to these detentions”, other than in exceptional cases, Crépeau said, following a five-day visit to Greece which took him to Athens, Lesbos, Samos and other 'hotspots' and the border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. These detentions - for a period of 25 days - of any migrant reaching the country since the EU-Turkey agreement entered into force on 20 March “have been asked of Greece by the EU”, the Rapporteur explained, but “this constraint is misplaced”. Detention is particularly unacceptable in the case of children, of whom there are many among the arrivals, “and who should not be held”, he stressed. Crépeau went on to flag up the uncertainty surrounding the legality of the EU-Ankara pact, which is no more than a “political agreement which is not legally binding in nature”.
At this stage, fewer than 400 of the 8500 people who have arrived in Greece since 20 March been returned to Turkey, the Financial Times reported over the weekend, quoting the statistics of the Greek government. In the framework of this EU/Turkey agreement, 160 people have also been resettled from Turkey to the EU, out of the potential 'quota' of 72,000 people to be resettled under the agreement.
On Monday 16 May, the European Asylum Support office (EASO) also announced that it was working with the Greek activities to start its pre-registration activities of asylum seekers who have reached Greece since 20 March on the continent, rather than just on the islands of the Aegean as previously. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)