SPAIN has rejected the EU's plan for the collective returning of war refugees to Turkey or their original country, saying it considered the deal 'unacceptable from the start'.
“The Spanish government will never accept an agreement which, by definition, goes against international law and human rights,” stated caretaking foreign minister José Manuel García-Margallo.
“Spain radically opposes any expulsion of entire groups, and instead requests individual treatment and the postponement of any deportations until this issue is resolved – and, if anyone does have to be sent back to where they came from, we want guarantees that refugees will be safe and protected.”
Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu had agreed, during an EU summit last Monday (March 7), to take on the immigrants and asylum seekers who had managed to reach Greece after a hazardous, life-threatening journey by sea that many did not survive.
At the same time, the government in Ankara wanted an additional €3 billion – on top of the €3bn the EU had promised to pay them this and next year – to fund refugee care and resettlement.
And in exchange for handling the refugee influx, Davutoglu said he wanted the EU to speed up Turkey's application to enter the Union and to expedite a relaxation on visa requirements for Turkish citizens travelling to Europe.
García-Margallo, however, insisted that if any migrants were sent back, this 'had to be to a safe country'.
Turkey, although it had signed the Geneva Convention on refugees, it had not signed up to the procedures that extend human rights enjoyed by signatory countries to citizens of other nations, such as Syria.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com