Brussels: EU leaders and Turkey’s prime minister approved a controversial deal to curb the huge flow of asylum seekers to Europe, with all migrants arriving in Greece from Sunday to be sent back.
Friday’s deal makes Turkey Europe’s bulwark against its biggest migration crisis since World War II, but comes at a heavy price and amid criticism from rights groups.
“Now unanimous agreement between all EU HoSG (Heads of State or Government) and Turkey’s PM on EU-Turkey Statement,” EU president Tusk tweeted after talks in Brussels with Ahmet Davutoglu.
Davutoglu smiled and waved on his way into a final meeting with his counterparts to shake hands on the hard-won deal.
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka confirmed separately the plans for migrants arriving from Sunday on the Greek islands.
“Deal with Turkey approved. All illegal migrants who reach Greece from Turkey as of March 20 will be returned!” Sobotka wrote on Twitter.
More than 1.2 million migrants have come to Europe since January 2015, and around 4,000 drowned last year while trying trying to reach Europe by sea.
Turkey won an acceleration of its long-stalled bid for EU membership, the doubling of refugee aid to six billion euros ($6.8 billion) and visa-free travel by June.
In return Turkey agreed to take back all new irregular migrants coming to Greece, the main entry point to Europe.
Under the terms of the plan, the EU would take in one Syrian refugee from Turkish soil in exchange for every Syrian readmitted to Turkey from Greece. The move is meant to discourage them from risking their lives in often rickety and overcrowded boats operated by smugglers.
The deal still faces doubts about how to implement such a huge scheme, not least due to the still often-tense relations between Ankara and Brussels.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blasted several EU states for taking only a “handful of refugees” in contrast to the nearly three million Turkey has admitted, most of them fleeing the Syrian war.
Erdogan also accused the Europeans of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) days after a bombing in Ankara claimed by Kurdish rebels allegedly linked to the group.
“European countries are paying no attention, as if they are dancing in a minefield,” he said.
Critics have said the mass expulsion planned under the EU-Turkey deal could infringe international law on the treatment of asylum seekers.
EU officials insisted the deal would be stressed repeatedly each application would be treated individually, with full rights of appeal and proper oversight.
Turkish officials will be sent to the Greek islands as well as UNHCR officials to oversee the scheme.
One major hurdle that was overcome was opposition from Cyprus, rooted in long-standing tensions with Turkey over Ankara’s refusal to recognize its government on the divided island.
But many European Union states have expressed concerns about Ankara’s human rights record, including its treatment of the Kurds and a crackdown on critics of the government.
The United Nations and rights groups fear the deal could violate international law that forbids the mass deportation of refugees.
Amnesty International set up a sign outside the summit venue: “Don’t trade refugees.”
The crisis has left Europe increasingly divided, with fears that its Schengen passport-free zone could collapse as states reintroduce border controls and concerns over the rise of populism and anti-immigrant sentiment.
The deal also envisages major aid for Greece, where tens of thousands of refugees are trapped in dire conditions after Balkan countries shut their borders to stop them heading north to richer Germany and Scandinavia.
The agreement does not however affect the more than 46,000 refugees and migrants already in Greece.
Greek Interior Minister Panagiotis Kouroumblis described the overwhelmed border town of Idomeni where many of the migrants are camped out as a “modern-day Dachau.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron was also hosting a meeting with Merkel and several other EU leaders on how to tackle migration flows from lawless Libya, which appeared to be increasing again.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned in a letter to European foreign ministers that there are more than 450,000 internally displaced persons and refugees in Libya who could decide to flee to Europe.
EU, Turkey strike deal to send back migrants
EU, Turkey strike deal to send back migrants
US congresswoman supports censure of colleague over comments against Arabs, Muslims
- Republican Randy Fine ‘spreading hate,’ Democrat Robin Kelly tells Arab News
- ‘Members of Congress should not be targeting Muslims for political gain’
CHICAGO: Illinois Congresswoman Robin Kelly has said she supports calls in the US House to censure Florida Congressman Randy Fine, who has repeatedly made derogatory comments about Muslims and Arabs on his official social media accounts.
Kelly, a Democrat, denounced anti-Muslim and anti-Arab statements made by Fine, a Republican, saying she expects a censure resolution to be put together by House members possibly next week.
“There’s just no room for hate. That’s just the bottom line. I’ve seen hate. It causes people to lose their lives. It causes people to not have the same opportunities as other people. It causes people to have extra stress, extra trauma. And to categorize a whole group of people is so unfair,” Kelly told Arab News.
“I come from a family with a lot of different ethnicities or cultures, and I’ve seen the damage that hate has done in categorizing any one community.
“The Islamic community is just always presented as the bad guy in the movies and on TV … Being a person of color and seeing things that even my own family have gone through, I’m just very sensitive to it.”
Last month, when a supporter of New York’s Muslim Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on social media that dogs have no place in a Muslim home, Fine wrote: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Then on Feb. 20, Fine introduced to Congress the “Protecting Puppies from Sharia Act,” cosponsored by nine Republicans.
Fine has been criticized in the past for making Islamophobic and anti-Arab comments on his social medial pages.
Last May, when Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib said it was “a crime to use starvation as a weapon in Gaza,” Fine responded: “Tell your fellow Muslim terrorists to release the hostages and surrender. Until then, #StarveAway.”
During his election campaign in December 2023, in response to an anonymous poster on X who criticized delays in getting food trucks into Gaza, Fine wrote: “Stop the trucks. Let them eat rockets. There are plenty of those. #Bombsaway.”
Before running for Congress, responding to a New York Times report and photo of 67 Arab children killed by Israel, he said: “Thanks for the pic.”
Muslim groups in Florida have been complaining about Fine’s rhetoric since 2021, including after he sent a private Instagram message to a Florida Muslim saying: “Go blow yourself up!”
Kelly said she is also disturbed by the comments of Fine’s allies, citing them as a broader undercurrent of Islamophobia rising in the US.
She insisted that Islamophobia is no different than antisemitism or racism against other groups, including African Americans like herself.
Fine and Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles “are spreading hate and should be censured,” Kelly wrote on her own Facebook page this past week.
“Our country is already divided enough, members of Congress should not be targeting Muslims for political gain.”
Ogles, a cosponsor of the “Protecting Puppies from Sharia Act,” declared: “Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie.”
Kelly, who was elected to Congress in 2013, said: “I think they should all be censured. I say to people that feel the Islamophobia, ‘Don’t get weary, don’t get lost in the chaos. That’s what they want you to do. You can’t go in your house and close the door. You have to be a voice. You can’t stay on the sidelines because this isn’t acceptable.’”
Arab News reached out to Fine for comment.
