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News > World

Greece Court Rules Turkey Not Safe Country for Refugees

  • Refugees arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on October 24, 2015.

    Refugees arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on October 24, 2015. | Photo: AFP

Published 21 May 2016
Opinion

The ruling debunks EU claims that Turkey is a safe country to deport refugees to under a deal between Brussels and Ankara to stem refugee flow.

A Greek court ruled Friday that Turkey was not a safe country to send refugees back to in what comes as the latest setback for the European Union’s deportation deal with Turkey, which has been labeled by the United Nations as illegal.

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The Greek newspaper Kathimerini reported that a secondary appeals panel on the Greek island of Lesbos found Turkey was not a safe third country to send refugees back to, a decision it said was likely to set a precedent under the country’s legal system.

In order to defend the deal, the EU claimed Turkey was a safe third country to implement the deal. Also the Greek parliament had to approve a legislation that approved Turkey as a “third safe country” in order to allow authorities to deport refugees who arrive at Greek shores back to Turkey.

However, the deal has been condemned by many rights and aid organizations including the United Nations, which call it a violation of international refugee laws.

Aid groups have said Turkey was not a “safe country” for refugees amid reports of forced deportations back to Syria, the shooting of refugees by Turkish forces at the border and bad conditions in refugee camps.

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Under the EU-Turkey deal, Ankara will take back all migrants and refugees, including Syrians who enter Greece illegally, in return for the EU hosting a maximum of 72,000 Syrian refugees directly from Turkey over the next few years.

For agreeing to the deal Ankara will receive billions of dollars, a visa-free access for its citizens into the EU and progress in its EU membership negotiations.

More than 800,000 refugees have travelled through Greece since 2015, according to U.N. estimates, and the country is one of the main spots on which Syrian refugees first make landfall in Europe.

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