Turkey insists EU migrant deal will respect international law
(ANKARA) - Turkey's controversial draft deal with the European Union to help ease the migrant crisis will respect international law, Ankara insisted Friday, following serious criticism from the United Nations and rights groups.
EU and Turkish leaders agreed on Monday to a tentative proposal including the return of migrants landing in Greece and a 'one-for-one' swap of Syrian refugees.
But the deal quickly came under fire, with the UN's top officials on refugees and human rights questioning whether expelling migrants en masse from Greece to Turkey would be legal.
A Turkish official speaking on condition of anonymity insisted the plan, which still has to be approved at an EU summit late next week, would respect international law.
"It is important for us that the agreement is compatible with international law on migrants," the official said.
"It is out of the question for us to do something against international law."
EU leaders had hoped the mooted deal with Turkey could help stem the flood of migrants streaming through the bloc in search of a better life, many fleeing the war in Syria.
The flow of people has claimed a terrible toll, with hundreds of migrants dying already this year as they made the perilous sea crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands.
The Turkish official said Ankara wanted to do "whatever is required on a legal ground" to stop the risky migrant journeys.
"We need to form the legal basis very well. We are working on this," the official said.
In return for its help with the migrants, Turkey has demanded six billion euros ($6.6 billion) in aid, visa-free access for Turkish citizens to Europe's passport-free Schengen zone and a speeding up of Ankara's efforts to join the EU.
Ankara has rejected suggestions it had "begged" the EU for money, while Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu congratulated himself on having driven a hard bargain, in comments to local media.
- Deal not certain -
EU approval for the deal is not a given -- Cyprus has said it has serious reservations about speeding up Turkey's application to join the bloc, while the Austrian interior minister said she was "extremely critical" of the deal.
"I am seriously wondering whether we are taking ourselves and our values seriously or if we are throwing them overboard," Johanna Mikl-Leitner said on Thursday.
As well as the legality of the plans, questions have been raised over the desirability of doing a deal with a country that critics say has had a shaky human rights record, not least regarding the media and its Kurdish minority.
Only a few days before Monday's summit, Turkish police raided the offices of daily newspaper Zaman to impose a court order placing it under administration, dispersing protesters with tear gas and water cannon.
The Turkish official said Turkey and Greece were "very determined" to comply with the agreement "without using force incompatible with human rights."
"The aim is a complete halt of crossings via the Aegean," the official said.
The migrant crisis -- Europe's worst since World War II -- has exposed sharp divisions in the EU.
With the ink on Monday's draft agreement barely dry, a string of Balkan nations shut their borders on Tuesday and Wednesday, closing off the main route to wealthy northern Europe trodden by hundreds of thousands of migrants in the last two years.
-- 'Paying for EU's mistakes --
Athens and Berlin blasted Balkan countries for the move, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying the closures were "neither sustainable nor lasting."
But their reactions flew in the face of the response of EU President Donald Tusk, who welcomed the Balkan route closure as part of a collective response from the bloc.
Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov on Friday angrily accused the EU of failing to anticipate the massive influx via Turkey and then dithering in the face of the historic refugee wave.
The border closures by Macedonia and other Balkan nations effectively stopped the refugee influx to northern Europe but left tens of thousands stranded in Greece.
"In the refugee crisis, we are now paying for the EU's mistakes, we have already spent 25 million euros ($28 million) of our taxpayers' money and had to declare a national crisis," he told Germany's Bild newspaper.
"And what did we get from Europe in return? Nothing! Not a cent! Instead, we, as a non-EU country, are now forced to protect Europe from an EU country, namely Greece," which he charged had been simply waving through refugees arriving from Turkey.