Turkey Sends Europe Sick and Least Qualified Migrants

A new report claims that Turkey is only sending the least qualified and the sick to Europe while preventing the highly skilled and academics from leaving.

A new report has come out from several member nations of the European Union (EU) that the much criticised EU-Turkey migrant deal may be getting more sour by the minute.

Unable to meet the 72 demands of the European political bloc the deal, which would grant visa free travel for Turkish citizens by July 1st, may be on the brink of collapse. Visa free travel is a key bargaining chip of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in exchange for the return of “irregular migrants.”

Now it has been revealed that Turkey is also preventing highly qualified and academic Syrians from stepping foot in the EU, Zeit ONLINE reports, disproportionately sending migrants with “very low education,” and some that may be severely ill.

There is also information from Germany and the Netherlands that the government in Ankara has withdrawn several exit visas for Syrians who were engineers, doctors and other skilled professionals.

The report has put a huge dent in the prediction of German Chancellor Angela Merkel who claimed that the Syrian migrants would help grow Germany’s economy, confirming the scepticism of many economists.

Part of the EU-Turkey deal is the so called “1:1 mechanism” which allows the Turkish government to exchange migrants with Greece so that those who do not qualify for asylum, or those who wish to go back, can have their place filled by legitimate refugees. Turkey has now put conditions on the 1:1 mechanism saying that Syrian academics do not qualify and are unable to leave Turkey even if they want to.

Along with the 1:1 mechanism was a proportionate approach of who would be allowed to come to the EU. The intention was that the sick and elderly had the same chance as healthy families to come to the EU, so that the EU and Turkey could spread out the costs of caring for the most vulnerable among the migrants.

Turkey is said to be taking advantage of the fact that the agreement had no limit to how many sick people Turkey could send.

Officially, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) selects the candidates for entry into the EU, but Turkey is insisting that their home office must have first pick of the migrants they want to keep before the UNHCR makes a decision.

So far, in the course of this deal, Germany has taken in 157 Syrians and other EU nations have taken 123. Berlin has said it is willing to take in 15,000 more Syrians this year.

COMMENTS