MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st November, 2020) The landmark 2016 migration deal signed by the European Union and Turkey to help control the flow of people attempting to enter the bloc lacked clarity and ultimately contributed to the current crisis on Greek islands such as Lesbos, Sofia Voultepsi, a member of Greek parliament for the ruling New Democracy party, told Sputnik in an interview.
The European Union experienced a so-called migrant crisis in 2015 as more than a million people, most of whom were from Syria and Afghanistan, attempted to cross the bloc's external borders. Subsequently, Brussels and Ankara signed a 6 billion euro ($7.1 billion) deal to help curb the Europe-bound migrant flow.
Under the terms of the deal, Turkey would accept Syrian refugees based on the Greek islands, while the European Union would accept Syrian refugees based in Turkey on a one-for-one basis, but Voultepsi, an ex-minister to the prime minister and former government spokeswoman, said that the deal lacked clarity.
"Actually, Turkey has been reluctant to conform from the very beginning. We saw a temporary improvement between March and June 2016, but after the attempted putsch of July 2016, things deteriorated again. Moreover, the EU-Turkey Joint Statement was not clear enough. As a result, the statement has been subject to a variety of interpretations," Voultepsi remarked.
As part of the agreement, Turkey does not accept refugees and migrants who have been transported from the Greek islands to facilities on the Greek mainland, the lawmaker stated.
"According to one of these, people transferred from the islands to the mainland cannot return to Turkey. In this way, our islands are suffocated. And this is a very negative consequence," Voultepsi stated.
Tensions heightened this past March after a surge in migrants seeking to enter the EU was observed attempting to cross the land border between Turkey and Greece. The incident prompted the European Union's border and coast guard agency Frontex to stage a rapid intervention and bolster staffing levels.
At the same time, Turkey has also refused to accept the return of migrants from the Greek islands due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Voultepsi stated.
"To all these, you have to add that since March 2020 ... Ankara refuses returns under the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic," the Greek lawmaker stated.
Voultepsi spoke at Thursday's EU High-level Inter-parliamentary Conference on Migration and Asylum, where debate centered on the European Commission's proposed new Pact on Migration and Asylum.
In her opening remarks to the conference, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU's current system governing asylum and migration "no longer works."
The new proposal, which von der Leyen said offers a "fresh start," would look to rebuild trust and ease the pressures on the bloc's external borders by requiring member states to share responsibility for migrants.
