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EU says progress on migrant deal with Turkey "fragile"

Xinhua, June 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

The European Commission here on Wednesday adopted its second report on the EU-Turkey migrant deal, which showed that while there has been further good progress in its implementation, progress achieved remains fragile.

European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said that the EU-Turkey Statement was delivering results, noting that migrants saw that it is not worth risking their lives on smugglers' boats and the EU side was on track to contract 1 billion euros of projects under the Refugee Facility by the end of this summer.

"But now is not the moment to sit back. We need to fully implement all elements of the Statement. This includes stepping up resettlement and increasing Greece's capacity to address the humanitarian situation and deal with asylum applications in line with EU law. The Turkish authorities also need to complete the implementation of the visa liberalization roadmap," he said.

In line with the EU-Turkey Statement from March 18, 2016, all new irregular migrants and asylum seekers arriving from Turkey to the Greek islands and whose applications for asylum have been declared inadmissible should be returned to Turkey.

Under the Statement, the EU will resettle a Syrian from Turkey to the EU for every Syrian returned to Turkey from the Greek islands. Priority is given to migrants who have not previously entered or tried to enter the EU irregularly, within the framework of the existing commitments.

According to a commission press release, the implementation of the Statement requires huge operational efforts from all involved, and, on the EU-side, most of all from Greece. Greece and Turkey are the two governments in charge of implementation.

The commission has been working closely with the Greek and Turkish authorities to ensure the necessary improvements in terms of practical and logistical arrangements and human resources to ensure the smooth implementation of returns and is assisting Greece with advice, expertise and support from the EU budget. Endit