8 March 2016 – The persistent preoccupation with shipping people back to Turkey instead of making unconditional efforts on resettlement and offering other safe and legal ways to Europe shows an alarmingly short-sighted and inhumane attitude to handling this crisis, said Amnesty International after European Council talks with Turkey today [8 March].
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Near the town of Gevgelija, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, a young Syrian girl holds the hand of an adult waiting to board a train to the Serbian border. Photo: UNICEF/Tomislav Georgiev
Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoğlu, President of the European Council Donald Tusk and President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker shared the outline of the plan for a final agreement between the EU and Turkey, in advance of the European Council meeting on 17 and 18 March.
(Brussels), 8 March 2016 – The European Union outline deal with Turkey announced on March 8, 2016, contradicts EU principles guaranteeing the right to seek asylum and against collective expulsions. EU and Turkish leaders meeting in Brussels announced an agreement in principle to stem migration and refugee flows from Turkey to Greece, including massive returns of all “irregular migrants” crossing into the Greek islands from Turkey.
GAZIANTEP, 10 March 2016 (IRIN) – Over the last five years, close to 4.8 million Syrians have fled the conflict in their country by crossing into Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. But as the war drags on, neighbours are sealing their borders. Forced from their homes by airstrikes and fighting on multiple fronts, the vast majority of Syrian asylum seekers now have no legal escape route.
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As war in Syria drags on, neighboring countries are sealing their borders leaving the vast majority of Syrians with no legal escape route | Photo: IRIN
Earlier this week, EU leaders reached a hard-won deal with Turkey aimed at ending a migration crisis that has been building since last year, and that in recent weeks has seen tens of thousands of migrants and refugees stranded in Greece.
But the agreement turns a blind eye to the fact that even larger numbers of asylum seekers are stranded back in Syria, unable to reach safety.
Geneva – The United Nations human rights chief on 10 March 2016 reiterated his profound concern about the situation faced by refugees and migrants “in extreme vulnerability,” and urged the European Union to adopt a more humane set of measures on migration at a summit next week.
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At a port in Greece, a young boy and his family join other refugees and migrants trying to board a bus that will transport them to the centre of Athens. UNHCR/Achilleas Zavallis
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“In the first two months of this year, more than 400 people have died trying to reach Europe – due partly to the lack of viable avenues of entry,” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein told the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
11 March 2016 (WSWS) – Idomeni, Lesbos, Calais … every day one sees pictures that for decades one could not have imagined in Europe: refugees, including families with small children, living in improvised tents and burrows, drowning in rain and mud, lacking medication and food. And again and again: closed borders, barbed wire and heavily armed police who attack desperate refugees with tear gas and batons.
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A young child eats a sandwich next to the tarpaulin that serves as a makeshift shelter, close to the town of Gevgelija, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, on the border with Greece (September 2015). Photo: UNICEF/NYHQ2015-2191/Georgiev
Large sections of the population look on these brutal scenes with horror and disgust, but the official political debate on the refugee crisis takes place within a narrow spectrum ranging from the right to the ultra-right.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 