MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The upcoming visit of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Greece to meet with refugees in the Greek detention center highlights the failure of the EU-Turkey deal, Amnesty International said Friday in a statement.
Ban is expected to visit the detention center on the Greek island of Lesvos on June 18, where some 6,000 migrants are waiting for their asylum applications to be processed.
"EU leaders should hang their heads in shame that Ban’s visit is needed at all. It speaks volumes about the tragic flaws of the failed EU-Turkey migration deal they rolled out three months ago, to great fanfare," Amnesty International statement reads.
In mid-March, Brussels and Ankara reached 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.
In May, the EU border agency Frontex said that the number of migrants coming to Greece via Turkey had plunged by 90 percent to 2,700 people in April compared to the previous month, due to the EU-Turkey deal.