Critics Condemn EU-Turkey Deal That Turned Refugees into Bargaining Chips

As European Union ministers in Brussels on Friday accepted a controversial plan described as a direct assault on the “very principle of international protection for those fleeing war and persecution,” advocates for refugees and human rights condemned not only the deal’s specifics but the deplorable deterioration of values it represents.

“The deal with Turkey has been approved,” tweeted Bohuslav Sobotka, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, from inside the meeting of 28 European leaders. “All illegal migrants who reach Greece from Turkey starting on 20 March will be returned.”

Final agreeement now sits with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu who is expected to announce his nation’s acceptance later on Friday.

As Bloomberg TV reported just after the news broke in Brussels:

Though the final details of the agreement were not fully formed until private negotiations ended earlier in the day, the basics of the deal put forth by the German government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, known since last week, would create a framework in which Turkey would receive financial aid and political accommodations in exchange for taking back any refugees turned away from Greece or trying to cross the Aegean Sea. For every Syrian refugee sent back, according to the blueprint which received mixed endorsements from other EU nations last week, another Syrian would be resettled in the EU directly from refugee camps in Turkey.

 Nick Dearden, the director of the campaign organization Global Justice Now, voiced his displeasure by tweeting, “EU-Turkey deal is a shameful moment for Europe.”

Critics of the deal were immediately responding on Twitter under the hashtag #StoptheDeal:

#StopTheDeal Tweets

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On Friday morning, a group of protesters in Greece climbed the Acropolis and dropped two large banners demanding a more humane approach for refugees and migrants. “Open Borders,” read one. And “Safe Passage – Stop Wars,” read the other.

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