Thousands Of "Elated, Wet" Migrants Land On Lesbos, As Refugee "Deal" Fails To Stem Flow
By Tyler Durden
On Friday, the EU and Turkey came to an agreement on a set of proposals to stem the flow of Mid-East asylum seekers into Western Europe.
The focus of the discussions in Brussels was cutting off the sea route to Greece. On the front lines is the Greek island Lesbos where at least half of the 144,000 refugees who have entered Greece in 2016 have landed. More than a million people crossed the Aegean to Greece last year.
The new deal between the EU and Turkey calls for Ankara to take back all refugees arriving in Greece by sea after their asylum claims are processed. For every refugee that is sent back, Europe will take refugees directly from Turkey in a kind of one-for-one swap. The point is to discourage people smugglers by effectively making the sea trip pointless. “If returns begin migrants won’t want to pay $1,000-2,000 to a smuggler,” Antonis Sofiadelis, head of the coastguard operations on Lesbos explains.
As part of the deal, Turkey will also get as much as €6 billion in aid and will have its EU membership application fast-tracked. Here are the specifics (on which the deal is notably short) for those who might have missed it:
- Sending Migrants Back to Turkey From Greece
- All migrants who travel to Greece from Turkey using irregular means after an agreement is reached will be returned to Turkey, in what the agreement calls “a temporary and extraordinary measure, which is necessary to end the human suffering and restore public order.”
- A One-for-One Swap of Syrians
- For each Syrian migrant returned to Turkey, the European Union will directly resettle another Syrian from Turkey, with priority given to Syrians who have not previously entered, or tried to enter, the European Union, up to a total of 72,000.
- If that number is reached — as it almost certainly will be — a new round of negotiations will be held.
- Stricter Controls of Turkey’s Borders
- Turkey will take “all necessary measures” to prevent migrants from opening new sea or land routes to the European Union from Turkey in a measure aimed at assuaging concerns in Bulgaria that migrants will stream into the country.
- Concessions for Turkey
- The European Union will speed up the disbursement of the €3 billion it pledged in November, and provide another €3 billion by the end of 2018, once Turkey meets its commitments.
- The European Union will waive most visa requirements for Turkish citizens by the end of June, provided that Turkey meets certain requirements.
But while the deal is effectively in place now, sending refugees back to Turkey from Greece won’t be possible until April, the deadline for setting up the administrative infrastructure that will allow for the swift processing of asylum applications.
In the meantime, the flow continues. “They waved, cheered and smiled, elated to have made it to Europe at dawn on Sunday in …read more
Source: Thousands Of "Elated, Wet" Migrants Land On Lesbos, As Refugee "Deal" Fails To Stem Flow
