March 15, 2016, Human Rights Watch Letter to EU Leaders on Refugees
"Dear Prime Minister, [...]
We see three particularly harmful elements in the principles articulated on March 7:
1) fast-track mass returns to Turkey,
2) the proposal to resettle one Syrian refugee from Turkey for each irregularly arriving Syrian who is returned to Turkey; and
3) cooperation with Turkey on what appears to be the establishment of a “safe area” in Syria that would be used as a pretext to contain the flow of asylum seekers leaving that war-torn country.
We urge you to reject all three of these proposed elements.
They are legally, morally, and politically wrong, and if implemented would signal a stark repudiation of international law and the very values on which the European Union was founded. [...]
Meanwhile, all refugees in Turkey are struggling to find work, educate their children, and build dignified lives — essential elements of a “safe” refuge.
Human Rights Watch is also deeply concerned that in the interests of securing the Joint Action Plan to stem the flow of refugees and migrants, the EU is willing to turn a blind-eye as Turkey’s president cracks down on human rights and dismantles Turkey’s democratic framework.
This has been all too evident in the muted EU response to the near elimination of critical media as the Action Plan was being negotiated. The escalating conflict in the Southeast over the past few months suggests growing instability in Turkey and should be of grave concern.
For the EU at such a moment to diminish its support for a rights-respecting Turkey dramatically transforms the terms of the EU-Turkey relationship and may even contribute to Turkey’s authoritarian slide.
A very different approach is needed. [...]
Exactly this!
(Emphasis in quote was added by me)Meanwhile, precious time, resources AND LIVES are being wasted. The last two years brabbling happened only on the cost of so much that could already be in place.
Watching consciously what is happening, it is evident that Europe contributed through their visionless politics to dramatic increase of all related humanitarian problems - for MENA-nations and -people as much as for Europe itself.
Lyn
