MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th March, 2020) The European Union is most likely to succumb to Turkey's demand for more money in exchange for cutting the Europe-bound migrant flow through its territory, as it is accustomed to the well-established practice of placing responsibility for dealing with illegal migration on other countries, Ramona Lenz, the cultural anthropologist in charge for migration issues at the medico international aid organization, told Sputnik.
On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a video-call with EU leaders to discuss, among other things, irregular migration to Europe. Turkey insisted on being payed extra � atop the 6 million Euros ($6.4 million) it got from the bloc in a 2016 bilateral deal to prevent illegal migrants from transiting to the continent � a demand Brussels was ready to accept once Erdogan made it clear that their deal was easily breakable.
"The deal with Turkey in 2016 was not the first one the EU has made. For many years now, the EU and some of its member states have been linking development aid for African countries to their willingness to cooperate in combating so-called 'irregular' migration to Europe. This is the same mechanism that underlies the EU-Turkey deal. There is no reason to believe that the EU will refrain from outsourcing the responsibility for migrants and refugees in the near future," Lenz said.
It is possible that other states also close borders and shift migrant processing responsibility further down the line, triggering a "chain reaction," according to Lenz.
As an example, the expert cited Erdogan's decision after the 2016 deal was signed to deport Afghan refugees without examining their asylum claims. The EU thus accepted the violation of refugee rights on Turkish territory, such as the right not to be deported without an examination of asylum claims, Lenz said.
"The human rights basis of the European Union is thus gradually being destroyed," Lenz said.
Earlier this month, the Turkish president did what many considered to be a demo of what he had long warned he would do and gave transiting migrants a 72 hour free passage to the Greek islands. Turkey even reportedly provided chartered buses to facilitate the transfer. As a result, some 35,000 migrants spurted onto the Turkish-Greek border, much to the distress of Athens, which eventually got assurances that it would receive a 700 million euro aid package from the EU leadership.
Meanwhile, lack of hygiene and overflowing capacities make migrant facilities some of the most vulnerable communities, especially in the face of the rampant coronavirus pandemic.
