Similar statements were made by representative of the German Ministry of Internal Affairs Ole Schroeder and Dutch officials.
The agreement between Brussels and Ankara to limit the number of refugees and migrants entering the EU came into force on March 20. According to the deal, all illegal migrants arriving to Greece via Turkey are to be returned back to Turkey in exchange for Syrian refugees accommodated in Turkey on a one-for-one basis.
In recent weeks, however, Turkey denied many applications for permission to travel to the EU, in particular among well-educated Syrian refugees residing in the country. The majority of these cases involved "families in which fathers are well-educated engineers, doctors or skilled workers," the magazine wrote, referring to reports from Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Commenting on the critical statements, Turkish authorities said that they have the right to choose candidates among those willing to resettle in the EU in their own way. Migrants arriving in Greece will be then registered by local authorities and their applications for asylum will be considered on an individual basis in cooperation with the UN.
