Europe Dutch plan wants to ferry refugees straight away from Greece back to Turkey

NLs gathering support for plan: ferry refugees back to Turkey (= safe
third country) & entry 250,000 refugees p/year to EU

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/netherlands-plan-ferry-refugees-turkey-160128170612335.html

Dutch plan seeks to ferry refugees back to Turkey
Refugees who arrive on Greek islands by boat would be returned to Turkey
almost immediately under Labour Party proposal.

29 Jan 2016

A plan presented by the Dutch Labour Party is proposing to ferry back
refugees from the Greek islands to Turkey, in an attempt to control the
influx of refugees into Europe.

The Netherlands, currently holding the European Union presidency, is
gathering support for the plan among several EU member states including
Germany, Diederik Samsom, the Labour party leader, told Dutch media on
Thursday.

According to the plan, which is suggested for implementation this
spring, refugees who arrive in Greece would be returned to Turkey almost
immediately by ferry. In exchange, European Union member states would
accept up to 250,000 refugees residing in Turkey a year.

The idea is to discourage refugees from taking the dangerous route by
sea. Refugees trying to enter Europe via the Greek islands would be
returned within a few days, according to the plan.

"The express highway for migrants between Greece and Turkey has to come
to an end," Samson told Dutch radio. "The Aegean Sea has become a mass
grave; 3,700 people died there last year," he added.

The implementation of the plan, which is said to have the support of
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, would depend on Turkey having the
status of a safe country for refugees.

To reach that status Turkey would have to adopt several laws and improve
the situation for asylum seekers. "It has to become a safe country,"
Samson said.

'Violation of Geneva Convention'

The proposal is being severely criticised by academics and politicians
in the Netherlands.

Professor Henk van Houtum, head of the Nijmegen Centre for Border
Research, described the proposal as "an example of a totally topsy-turvy
world".

"First, Europe creates some sort of survival of the fittest by forcing
refugees to cross the sea in dangerous circumstances, because they
cannot enter legally. Then, once the refugees have reached the other
side; you send them back by boat again?

READ MORE: Identifying the refugee victims of the Mediterranean

"This does not solve anything; it's just transferring the problem
elsewhere, to an unsafe country where they have no future.

"In fact, it is a violation of the Geneva Convention which says anyone
who qualifies for refugee status should be granted asylum in the country
where the application is made," Van Houtum said.

'Be like Australia'

Samson's plan has similarities with the Australian asylum policy that
was introduced in 2013.

In Australia, migrants who try to reach the country by boat have no
chance of a permanent stay and are immediately sent to detention centres
on Papua New Guinea and other surrounding islands.

Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders argued in April last year that
the Netherlands' refugee policy should be more like Australia's. "At
least they have the balls to stop the influx of migrants," he said.

But now even Wilders appears to reject the ferry plan proposed by Samsom.

"What a useless plan," he wrote on Twitter. "First we send the fortune
seekers by boat to Turkey and then after that by plane to Europe and the
Netherlands?"

The Dutch proposal to force a solution to the refugee crisis came just
after Prime Minister Rutte said that the EU had six to eight weeks to
reach an agreement on how to tackle immigration.

If not, "the EU will have to think about a plan B," Rutte said, without
elaborating.

Additional reporting by Fleur Launspach

Source: Al Jazeera


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