The EU eager to speed up transfer of refugees from Greece to Turkey as the EU-Turkey deals seems to be failing

22 Oct (Tirana Echo) – The EU has called on Greece to accelerate refugee returns from Greek islands into Turkey as Member States require the implementation of the EU-Turkey Agreement in their latest efforts to maintain and tighten controls over the Eastern Mediterranean route.

In their latest European Council conclusions heads of EU member states called for a lasting stabilisation of the situation on the Eastern Mediterranean route which “requires the further implementation of the EU-Turkey statement and continued support for countries along the Western Balkans route”.

The European Council has called for further efforts to accelerate returns from the Greek islands to Turkey, in line with the EU-Turkey statement, asking Greece to “enhance the efficiency and speed of asylum procedures, and for the rapid appointment of permanent coordinators in the Greek hotspots”.

The Council has also called on member states to help Greece with further resources needed to speed up the process of asylum cases and returns while they should revise the visa mechanism with regards to a visa free regime with the Schengen area, as part the EU-Turkey deal.

While the situation is not urgent in terms of numbers of refugees knocking on Europe’s doors, the EU is eager to return refugees to Turkey without further delays from the Greek side, amid fears that the Agreement is only working in Turkey’s favor.

Greece is host to some 50,000 migrants with huge numbers still trapped in several Greek islands in the Mediterranean demanding clarity about their status. Although number of migrant arrivals into Greece has fallen drastically, very few are being sent back to Turkey due to paperwork problems and lack of proper resources to deal with their asylum cases.

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