Three years ago the EU signed a deal with Turkey designed to help share the responsibility for accommodating refugees arriving in Europe from the war in Syria. But in an open letter to European leaders, 25 NGOs have accused the EU of trapping refugees in “unsustainable, ineffective and dangerous” conditions.
“We, the 25 undersigned humanitarian, human rights and volunteer organisations call on you, in the run up to the third anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal, to take immediate and sustained action to end the unfair and unnecessary containment policy which is preventing asylum seekers from leaving the Greek islands.”
There are currently more than 15,000 people on the Greek island ‘hotspots’, more than a half of whom are women and children. The majority are staying in overcrowded camps, many sleeping in unsuitable tents and containers, facing risks to their safety and security. The camp on the island of Samos alone houses more than 4,000 people, a number exceeding its capacity by more than five times.
The open letter called on European leaders to urgently take action to end the humanitarian and human rights crisis at Europe’s border and was signed by 25 non-governmental organisations including Amnesty International, the Danish Refugee Council, Human Rights Watch, the International Rescue Committee and Oxfam.
“The situation facing thousands of migrants and refugees on the islands is a scar on the conscience of Europe. Anyone looking up at the Acropolis can see thousands of years of civilisation. Anyone looking towards the refugee camps on the Greek islands will see that our leaders have learnt nothing,” said Fotis Filippou, Campaigns Director for Europe at Amnesty International, in a statement.
In March 2016, a deal between the EU and Turkey deal to tackle the migrant crisis formally came into effect. The agreement was intended to limit the influx of irregular migrants entering the EU through Turkey and a central aspect of the deal is that all new irregular migrants and asylum seekers arriving from Turkey to the Greek islands and whose applications for asylum have been declared inadmissible should be returned to Turkey.
However, the letter makes clear that “The expectation that most newcomers could be returned to Turkey under the EU-Turkey deal has proved to be dangerously unrealistic. According to Greek Asylum Service representatives in Lesvos, only up to 6% of the asylum-seekers arriving to Lesvos would be eligible for return to Turkey.”
Kyriakos Giaglis from the Danish Refugee Council told Good Morning Europe that EU nations were playing a “blame game” to avoid taking responsibility.
He said “The EU – Turkey deal is not working […]. I don’t think the issue is funds […] but there is a general ‘blame game’ between EU states and unfortunately, we have not seen a common European Union approach combating the issue.”
He also said the priority was to provide an adequate infrastructure to care for the refugees.
In the letter, the organisations emphasised the dangerous conditions of the camps: “Currently, around 12,000 people are still forced to live in inadequate reception and identification centers built for a maximum capacity of half this population: sleeping in unheated tents or overcrowded containers with limited access to running water and electricity, and often exposed to ongoing violence, harassment and exploitation, amid high tensions, lack of security and minimal protection.”
The letter called on EU leaders to urgently agree on fair and sustainable arrangements for sharing responsibility for asylum seekers arriving in Europe, that will ensure member states’ ability to provide decent and dignified conditions for people in need of protection.
The organisations behind the letter also called on the Greek Government to immediately suspend the restriction of movement that unnecessarily contains asylum seekers in the Greek islands and to better allocate and use EU funding – not only prioritising the support of the border control and asylum procedures, but also ensuring the provision of essential services as well as the planning of a fair and an efficient asylum system and a long term and sustainable reception and integration plan for refugees and migrants in Greece.