Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini
said Monday an EU-Turkey accord on asylum seekers is not
working. There are political and juridical "problems", she told
reporters. The European Parliament has decided not to proceed
until they see a commitment from the Turkey side to satisfy all
the criteria" contained in the bilateral deal, Boldrini
explained. "A Greek court of appeals has ruled Turkey cannot be
considered a safe country of first arrival" for asylum seekers,
the speaker pointed out. Under the deal which went into effect
in the first week of April, the EU will accept one Syrian
refugee for every Syrian national returned to Turkey after a
failed bid for asylum. Amnesty International human rights NGO
said last month that Turkey has been forcibly repatriating
asylum seekers from war-torn Syria at the rate of 100 people a
day, which is illegal under Turkish, European and international
international human rights law.
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