UN Warns EU-Turkey Refugee Deal will violate EU’s Human Rights Law

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), has warned that a recent deal between European Union (EU) leaders and Turkey, which allows refugees to be sent en masse from the EU to Turkey, violates the European Convention of Human Rights.

UNHCR said that under the European Convention of Human Rights, collective expulsion of foreigners in EU member-states is prohibited.

The flow of people seeking refuge in the EU has increased since last year. More than a million people from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq crossed into the Union in 2015. The majority of these refugees are living in Germany, and predictions have been made that more people will flow into the EU in this year than 2015.

Some EU leaders have said that if immediate measures are not put in place to stop the flow, the Union’s borders will collapse. EU leaders are therefore considering all options, attempting to keep refugees away from the Union. In the latest proposal, Turkey agreed to take back all refugees who cross into Europe from its soil, wanting in return, more money; faster EU membership talks have also been discussed; and quicker visa-free travel for its citizens.

EU leaders who attended the meeting with Turkish officials, endorsed the deal in principle. According to Al Jazeera, EU Council president Donald Tusk said the deal was a breakthrough, sending a very clear message that the days of irregular migration are over.

The next step for the deal to become officially recognized in all EU member-states, is for it to be presented at a key European Council meeting on March 17 and 18. However, UNHCR’s Europe regional director Vincent Cochetel, has bitterly criticized the deal which will soon be adopted. Mr Cochetel said the deal would amount to a violation of human rights.

“The collective expulsion of foreigners is prohibited under the European Convention of Human Rights. An agreement that would be tantamount to a blanket return of any foreigners to a third country, is not consistent with European law, is not consistent with international law,” Cochetel told Swiss radio RTS in an interview.

Whereas the UNHCR is busily criticizing the deal, the Turkish Prime Minister, Ahmed Davutoglu praised the deal in a special meeting with the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras. Davutoglu told Tsipras that the deal will reduce the human traffic on the Aegean Sea.

Many human rights activists and charity organizations have expressed serious concerns on the deal. The Director of Refugees Studies at University of Oxford, Alexander Betts said the deal is a set of appalling proposals on all human rights and international legal grounds. Mr Betts said Turkey lacks a framework ensuring the protection and socio-economic freedom of refugees, putting refugees in a difficult position when deported en mass from the EU to Turkey, against their wishes.

The UK-based charity, Save the Children said in a statement, that in Europe, one in four asylum seekers is a child. The charity said the deal will deprive refugees of international protection, and that it would be illegal under international refugee law.

The international medical charity, Doctors Without Borders also said European leaders had lost track of reality, and are contradicting their own values and laws they have rectified.

It is said the EU has not fulfilled its promise in September 2015, of settling some 66,000 refugees from Greece to other member-states. The Union has only settled 600 people out of the 66,000 since making the promise. Many activists have said this is a huge failure on the part of the Union, when concerning the refugee crisis.

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