Greece, Turkey take legal short-cuts in race to return migrants
Greece and Turkey are rushing through changes to their asylum rules in a race to implement a EU-Turkey agreement on the return of refugees and migrants from Greek islands to Turkey from April 4, EU officials and diplomats said.
Both Athens and Ankara must amend their legislation to permit the start of a scheme - denounced by the U.N. refugee agency and rights groups - to send back all migrants who crossed to Greece after March 20.
The policy is meant to end the uncontrolled influx of refugees and other migrants in which more than a million people crossed into Europe last year.
EU border agency Frontex will coordinate the logistics after Greek authorities decide on individual cases. An EU official said it would have ferries, police officers and other escorts ready on Monday for the short trip, most likely from the Greek island of Lesbos to Dikili in Turkey.
Greece, which started evacuating hundreds of people stranded in Athens' Piraeus port on Thursday, submitted to parliament an asylum amendment bill on March 29. Brussels said it had assurances from Athens that it would be passed this week.
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"Our concerns regarding legal safeguards remain unchanged and we hope that the Greek authorities will take them fully into consideration," UNHCR Europe director Vincent Cochetel said.
A European Commission spokeswoman, Natasha Bertaud, said the Greek government had put to parliament "the necessary legal provisions to allow for the return to Turkey of asylum seekers whose requests have been declared inadmissible".
Turkey had confirmed its intention to introduce the legal changes by the target date of April 4, she said.
These include ensuring protection in line with the Geneva Convention on refugees for Syrians who are sent back there as well as those who enter Turkey from Syria. Bertaud did not say what Ankara planned to do about non-Syrian migrants.
But a person familiar with EU-Turkey preparatory talks said it was doubtful whether the Turkish authorities would be willing to introduce any legal protections for non-Syrians.
The UNHCR and non-government organizations have pulled out of reception camps for migrants on the Greek islands because of their opposition to detaining asylum seekers.
