blog of the post capitalist transition.. Read or download the novel here + latest relevant posts
EU/Turkey Refugee Scam: Sick, obscene, shameful, stupid or what?!
Return of refugees to Turkey is shameful, illegal human trafficking Amnesty’s Andrew Gardner says sending refugees back to Syria is “absolutely illegal” both under Turkish and international law in itself. Also 2 documented reports, by Amnesty and the BBC show Turkey is now forcing refugees back into the Syrian war zone. Thus refugees deported by the EU to Turkey could be doubly illegally dumped on into Syria. Turkey is charging EU taxpayers 6,000,000,000 euros, plus free entry to the EU, for the privilege of exploiting this mega scam. Plus for every deportee accepted from Greece the Turkish state can legally dump a ‘documented’ refugee back there!
Sick, obscene, shameful, stupid or what?!
Greece on brink of chaos as refugees riot over forced return to Turkey
Rival ethnic groups clash in Piraeus and 800 break out of detention centre on Chios as EU deal brings desperation
Refugees walking through Chios last week. A Greek government spokesman said: ‘They have fled war. They are not violent.’ Photograph: Orestis Panagiotou/EPA
Helena Smith The Guardian The Greek government is bracing itself for violence ahead of the European Unionimplementing a landmark deal that, from Monday, will see Syrian refugees and migrants being deported back to Turkey en masse.
Rioting and rebellion by thousands of entrapped refugees across Greece has triggered mounting fears in Athens over the practicality of enforcing an agreement already marred by growing concerns over its legality. Islands have become flashpoints, with as many as 800 people breaking out of a detention centre on Chios on Friday.
Some 750 migrants are set to be sent back between Monday and Wednesday from the island of Lesbos to the Turkish port of Dikili.
“a deal between devils,”
Describing an agreement between Turkey and the European Union to keep millions of refugees from entering Europe as “a deal between devils,” Turkey has “cashed in on the people it has helped make homeless.” As Al Jazeera reported, Turkey accepted $3.3 billion from the European Union (EU) “in return for checking the flow of refugees across the Aegean Sea.” Turkey reportedly asked for double that amount to cover the costs of dealing with the refugees.
Earlier in March 2016, European Council president Donald Tusk had warned refugees from Asia and Africa, “Do not come to Europe… It is all for nothing.”
Noting that “the great bulk of Turkey’s refugees are victims of Turkey’s role in the war against Syria, in alliance with Europe and the United States and the royal oil aristocrats of the Persian Gulf,” Ford describes human trafficking in Turkey “on a scale not seen since the Atlantic slave trade.”
In addition to the EU money, Turkey has also sought admission to the European Union—and, with this, the right for 75 million Turks to enter Europe without visa restrictions—as a condition for controlling its refugee population. Thus, according to Ford, Turkey has engaged in a “vast protections racket trap,” effectively agreeing to protect Europe from further incursions by “the formerly colonized peoples whose labor and lands have fattened Europe and its white settler states for half a millennium.”
And with Europe’s deal on returning migrants there taking effect from Monday, the rights group claims that Ankara has been forcing thousands of Syrians to go back to their war-torn homeland.
“The Turkish government needs to stop this blatantly illegal and inhumane practice,” said Amnesty International’s Director for Europe and Central Asia John Dalhuisen.
“There is no room for any practice to be returning any individuals to a conflict zone. In turn, the EU must be encouraging Turkey to stop this and certainly cannot even contemplate returning Syrians when any real risk of sending them back to Syria from Turkey exists.”
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) called on Friday for legal safeguards to be in place before refugees are returned to Turkey under the agreement with the EU, while warning that conditions in Greece are deteriorating.
As the Greek parliament passed legislation on Friday needed for the deal to be implemented, Turkey’s foreign ministry denied authorities were sending Syrians back against their will. A spokesman for the European Commission said it took the allegations seriously and would raise them with Ankara.
For those on the frontline, Monday is looming ominously. More than 50,000 migrants and refugees are stranded behind closed borders in Greece.Their future looks more uncertain than ever.
Turkey ‘acting illegally’ over Syria refugees deportationsBy Mark Lowen BBC Turkey correspondent
Stray dogs prowled around the entrance. The fence was topped with barbed wire. It was an icy cold morning.
“We’re here to visit one of your inmates,” we said. The guards took our names – but not our professions. Journalists are not allowed inside detention centres, so we went undercover.
Soon, Ahmad appeared at the gate. “Nice to see you again,” he said. “You’ve lost weight.”We first met Ahmad in September on the Turkey-Greece border in the town of Edirne.
He was among 2,000 Syrians who had camped out at the local stadium there, trying to travel legally across the land border into Greece, rather than risking their lives in overcrowded rubber boats.
After a few days, they were cleared away by police. But not all obeyed. About 120 vowed to stay put.
‘I would rather die’
Deemed “troublesome”, they were rounded up by police and taken off by bus. We followed as they arrived at the local detention camp.
The policemen refused to tell us their final destination. Through the railings, dozens of inmates already there shouted from their windows, one gesturing that his arm had been broken.
Suddenly we lost the mobile phone contact that we had kept with a handful of them.
In early December, Ahmad got in touch. He was in a new detention camp, he said, in Tekirdag – a two-hour drive from Istanbul.
Image captionThe Tekirdag detention centre is about a two-hour drive from Istanbul
“And what of the others?” I asked.
“They were sent back to Syria,” he replied.
Under the “non-refoulement” principle of international humanitarian law, a state is prohibited from deporting individuals to a war zone.
We decided to visit Ahmad in Tekirdag to hear more of the allegations that Turkey is acting illegally.
“I was beaten badly in Edirne,” he said. “They hit me.”
He passed us a photograph, which shows heavy bruising on his leg. It was caused, he said, by mistreatment at the hands of the guards.
Image captionAhmad says he was “beaten badly in detention”
After Edirne, he was taken to three other camps – in Aydin, Erzurum and now Tekirdag – with no prospect of a trial.
“I’m sitting here without charges – and I don’t know how long I’ll be here,” he continued.
“Did the others want to go back to Syria?” I asked.
“No. I’m absolutely sure that most of them were running from Syria.”
What would he do if they tried to send him back?
“I would rather die”.
‘Forced us to sign papers’
Two other members of the group arrested in Edirne also made contact.
One, from the Islamic State (IS) stronghold of Raqqa, messaged with the words: “We are out of prison today. They sent us to Syria.
“Bye my friend. Don’t write to me until I do please,” he wrote, clearly fearful of retribution by IS.
We tracked down the other to southern Turkey, where he said he had returned after being deported to Syria in late November. He showed us the Turkey exit stamp on his passport.
Image captionThe border at Kilis is the one of the main crossing points between Turkey and Syria
“They drove us to the border and forced us to sign a piece of paper on which was written ‘I want to go back to Syria’,” he told me.
“They were shouting at us and said they would send us back to Erzurum (detention centre) if we didn’t sign.
“I didn’t want to go back to Syria. Some of my friends have now been put in prison there, and many people were afraid of returning to a war zone.”
‘Absolutely illegal’
More than two million Syrians are now in Turkey – it is the largest host of refugees in the world.
Many are settled here, glad of sanctuary. But others are using it as a transit to Europe.
Of the more than one million migrants and refugees who travelled to the European Union in 2015, most have come through Turkey.
The Turkish government has now signed a deal with the EU to receive about €3bn (£2.2bn; $3.3bn) to stem the flow.
But that is contingent on improving conditions for refugees so more feel they can stay here, not deporting them back to a war zone.
Amnesty International says its research has found that scores – possibly hundreds – of refugees and asylum-seekers have been sent back to Syria and Iraq.
“This is absolutely illegal, both under Turkish and international law, because you cannot forcibly return someone to a place where their lives and rights are in danger,” said Andrew Gardner, the head of Amnesty in Turkey.
“The EU needs to wake up to the fact that on its own borders, international law is being broken on a regular basis.
“And the EU needs to wake up to the fact that its gatekeeper in Turkey is violating the rights of refugees in detaining them secretly and arbitrarily – and returning them to Syria.”
Grave charges
We asked the Turkish government for an interview. They declined, but issued this statement:
“We categorically deny that any Syrian refugees have been deported from Turkey to Syria… The UNHCR (United Nations refugee agency) interviews all returnees at the border to make sure they’re going to Syria voluntarily.”
When we replied, telling them our interviewees spoke of being forced to sign voluntary return papers, they replied: “To ensure public safety, individuals with criminal ties may be asked to reside at a refugee camp.
“If certain individuals would rather return to Syria… the government can’t forcibly keep them in Turkey”.
But Ahmad is being forcibly held in Turkey, and we have seen no evidence that the group arrested in Edirne had “criminal ties”.
Being bussed between detention centres is rather different from being “asked to reside at a refugee camp”.
Covert detention, deportation to a war zone: the charges are grave.
A country that has warmly and proudly welcomed so many Syrians now stands accused of illegal acts.
The Free is a book and a blog. Download free E/book ...”the most detailed fictional treatment of the movement from a world recognizably like our own to an anarchist society that I have read...
View all posts by thefreeonline
2 thoughts on “EU/Turkey Refugee Scam: Sick, obscene, shameful, stupid or what?!”
The Free 
2 thoughts on “EU/Turkey Refugee Scam: Sick, obscene, shameful, stupid or what?!”