From April 4-6 it is planned that 750 illegal immigrants will be moved. They will be transported by ferry from the port of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos to the Turkish port of Dickel.
The United Nations has called the current immigration crisis the most serious since the Second World War. According to the European border agency FRONTEX, in 2015 1.83 million people crossed the EU illegally.
The EU hopes to stop the flow of illegal migrants through Turkey. A top United Nations official has warned that the EU-Turkey refugee deal could be illegal.
United Nations Special Representative for International Migration Peter Sutherland said on Saturday that deportation of migrants and refugees without considering their asylum applications first would violate international law.
Under the latest agreement, the EU will send all illegal migrants and refugees who have reached the Greek islands since March 20 back to Turkey in exchange for legal Syrian refugees on a one-for-one basis.
The deal goes into effect on Monday. Radio Sputnik discussed the EU-Turkey agreement with Director of Bridging Europe think-tank Dimitris Rapidis in an interview.
“Turkey is not at all prepared for this process. We do not have any strategic information on how this will be done. Some media are saying that 500 migrants will be sent back to Turkey but even if this is done we need to see the development of this deal in the coming weeks. So far the European Union has no specific plan. Turkey had a problem on implementing the deal one month ago and in Greece there is complete chaos.”
Rapidis further said that this move violates Geneva Convention because Turkey is not a part of it and Turkey cannot be considered as a safe country for these refugees.
“Turkey has already received more than two million refugees from Syria. Jordan, Libya for instance are way smaller countries than the EU and have received more than two million refugees from Syria with a population of five to six million,” Rapidis said.
He further spoke about the efforts that Turkey has made to accommodate the refugees and how the rest of the countries should assist Turkey in its efforts.
“I think we will have another round of failed decisions by the European Union and I see a new round of negotiations with Turkey with respect to the amount that Turkey will receive to accommodate the refugees.”
