Only 16% of the asylum seekers in Greece can be returned to Turkey or their country of origin despite the EU-Turkey pact, Maria Stavropoulou, former head of the Greek asylum service, said on Sunday 11 February in an interview with Greek daily Kathimerini.
Stavropoulou, whose two-year term of office had just come to an end, said that just 16% of asylum seekers can be sent back to Turkey, and this includes those who want to return to their country of origin and those who have withdrawn their asylum application.
Under the agreement, or EU-Turkey Declaration of March 2016, Syrian asylum seekers who reach the Greek islands of the Aegean Sea after setting off from the Turkish coast can be returned to Turkey. To date, since 4 April 2016, 2,141 people meeting the requirements of the agreement have been returned to Turkey, according to Commission figures. This, in the Commission’s view, does not mean, however, that the agreement is not working. On the contrary, it has delivered by drastically reducing the numbers of migrants and asylum seekers arriving in Greece. There are procedures to be followed and the rights of the asylum seekers to be respected, the Commission says. It acknowledges, nonetheless, that “procedures are too slow”, indicating that it is working to find a solution to this problem with the European Asylum Support office (EASO). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)