"The committee has judged that the temporary protection which could be offered by Turkey to the applicant, as a Syrian citizen, does not offer him rights equivalent to those required by the Geneva convention," the committee said in a document seen by The Guardian newspaper.
In March, Brussels and Ankara agreed on a deal under which Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants who arrive in the European Union through its territory in exchange for Syrian refugees accommodated in Turkey, on a one-for-one basis. In return, the 28-member bloc pledged to accelerate the Turkish EU accession bid and introduce a visa-free regime between Turkey and the Schengen area.
The EU-proposed migrant cooperation deal claimed that in certain circumstances an expedited procedure of repatriation was legal. The Geek decision contradicts this and can potentially create a precedent for similar appeals from thousands of migrants held in shelters on Greek islands.
