has mostly been hampered by the slow pace of processing of asylum applications at first instance by the Greek Asylum Service and of processing of appeals by the newly-established Greek Appeals Authority,” the EU Commission said in a progress report. The EU blames the delays on Greek inefficiency. The camps are now holding three times as many people as they held when the deal was signed, and twice as many as they were built for. Some 61,000 migrants are still scattered across Greece, including 15,900 in overcrowded island camps that have grown violent as the delays mount, with around 2,500 more arriving each month. The rest are still in Greece, prey for smugglers who offer to take them to northern Europe. Around 70 people who did claim asylum in Greece gave up on the process and asked to leave before it was over. Of those who returned, most were economic migrants from countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh who left without seeking asylum in Greece. Only about 700 people who arrived since the deal was signed - just four percent of the total - have gone back to Turkey, and none was ordered back after being recognized as a refugee. If it’s proven that people are being turned back, it can force people to think twice about even trying,” said James Ker-Lindsay, an expert on southern Europe at the London School of Economics. As long as those crossing are still able to stay in Greece, there is a risk that more will decide to come. Only 17,000 people, around half of them Syrians, have made the hazardous sea crossing from Turkey since the deal was signed, a tiny fraction of hundreds of thousands that arrived the previous year to pass through Greece.īut for the deal to continue to work for the longer term, European officials and experts say refugees will have to be sent back to Turkey. Turkey agreed to take them back, in return for a range of EU concessions.Īt around the same time, Balkan countries along the land route north closed their borders, so that migrants who once poured across Greece to reach other parts of Europe are now trapped there and prevented from pressing on.įor the most part, the goal of stemming the tide has been achieved so far. Under the deal, the European Union declared Turkey “a safe third country”, meaning those who make the crossing can be returned there, even if found to have fled Syria or other countries as refugees deserving protection. The agreement reached in March was designed to reduce the number of migrants crossing into Europe from Turkey, after more than a million people arrived in Europe last year, most reaching Greek islands by boat and continuing by land to Germany. Refugees and migrants wait to be registered at the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, November 5, 2015.
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