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Tens of thousands of refugees have been trying to cross into Europe via Turkey since Ankara late last month decided to loosen controls on refugees seeking to reach Europe via its territory, violating the 2016 deal with the EU. That has caused tensions on Turkey’s border with Greece, where Greek forces have been clashing with the refugees to block them.

Cavusoglu said in an interview with state-run Anadolu news agency that the EU had to grant visa-free travel to Turkish citizens within the 28-nation bloc’s Schengen area and that an update of the country’s customs union with the bloc must be implemented to help solve the refugee issue.

His remarks came after Erdogan left meetings with EU and NATO leaders in Brussels late on Monday without issuing a joint statement or appearing at a joint press conference, as had been planned.

Erdogan made the trip to Brussels amid heightened tensions between Ankara and the EU over Turkey’s decision regarding its border controls last month, which sparked fears of a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis, when over one million refugees arrived in the EU, most of them fleeing conflict zones in the Middle East and North Africa, via Turkish territory.

Greece — which shares a border with Turkey — and the EU have accused Ankara of deliberately encouraging the refugees to cross the border as a way of pressuring European leaders into offering more financial assistance or backing Turkey’s campaign in Syria.

In March 2016, Turkey and the EU sealed a deal intended to stem the flow of refugees from Syria and other troubled countries to Europe in return for financial and political rewards for Ankara, including visa liberalization. Ankara, however, failed to meet the 72 conditions demanded by the EU for the visa exemption to be approved.

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The “assisted return” of the Central Americans took place between January 18 and Monday, according to the interior ministry and the National Migration Institute.

A total of 1,064 Honduran refugees were deported on National Guard planes and charter aircraft, they said in a statement.

Another 1,239 were repatriated by land from the southern states of Chiapas and Tabasco, the institute said.

The Central Americans entered Mexico last week from Guatemala with the so-called “2020 Caravan” with the intention of heading to the United States.

Mexican authorities said the deportations were carried out “in compliance with the migration law and with full respect for human rights.”

Members of the National Guard last Thursday used tear gas as they arrested some 800 members of the caravan along the southern border with Guatemala, causing panic among the refugees who included women and children.

Thousands of Central Americans have crossed Mexico toward the United States in caravans in recent years, fleeing chronic poverty and brutal gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Mexico faces pressure to keep the asylum seekers from crossing its northern border from US President Donald Trump, who last year threatened to impose steep tariffs if the country did not do more to stop a surge of undocumented Central Americans.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador deployed some 26,000 troops to the country’s borders in response.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – An increasing number of migratory birds have been found dead in the Miankaleh peninsula in Mazandaran province, northern Iran.

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“Most were disembarked in Tripoli and all were taken to detention centers,” IOM spokesperson Safa Msehli told a UN media briefing at the UN offices in Geneva.

She said that NGO search and rescue vessels reported having rescued 237 others.

“The current sudden increase in departures is especially alarming given the very limited search and rescue capacity in the Mediterranean and specifically in the central Mediterranean,” said the IOM spokesperson, Anadolu Agency reported.

In the first two weeks of last year, not one of migrants returns to Libyan shores.

The returned migrants are among the more than 1,000 who have left Libya by sea since Jan. 1, driven in part by the heaviest clashes Tripoli has seen since hostilities began nine months ago, said Msehli.

Migrants told the IOM at disembarkation points in Libya that the escalation in hostilities in and around the capital and the deteriorating humanitarian situation are the main reasons behind this increase in departures.

Most of the returns were carried out by the Libyan coast guard.

During the same period last year, 23 bodies were recovered by the coast guard and no migrants were returned to Libya.

Over 1,000 other migrants who have registered for IOM’s Voluntary Humanitarian Return program are still trapped in Libya due to the security situation.

“The challenging and unsafe environment in the country’s capital has disrupted aviation activities thus hindering an important lifeline for stranded migrants,” said Msehli.

On Jan. 12, the warring sides in the Libyan conflict announced a cease-fire.

Since the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, two seats of power have emerged in Libya: one in eastern Libya supported mainly by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, and the other in Tripoli, which enjoys UN and international recognition.

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Greece is poised to create “prison” island camps for migrants, said aid groups amid growing criticism of government plans to overhaul refugee reception centers on Aegean outposts facing Turkey.

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Between the summer of 2015 and spring 2016, Austria became one of the European countries most affected by the migration and refugee crisis. In 2015, more than 88,000 people requested asylum in Austria. In 2016, another 42,000 did so. In 2017, we have already received another 22,000 asylum requests. In the peak year of 2015, Austria counted the third highest per capita rate of asylum applications in the European Union – outnumbered only by Hungary and Sweden. Most of the applicants came from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

In 2015, the majority of refugees and migrants reached the European Union through Greece. Greek authorities were overwhelmed by the sheer number of people arriving at their shores. But they did not stay there. They were waved through to Central Europe at an increasing pace. As a consequence the “Western Balkans route” became increasingly easy to cross, creating a pull-effect which attracted further migratory flows. Social media and smugglers also played their role by spreading false rumors about life in central and northern Europe.

It was not the first time in recent history that Austria admitted large numbers of persons seeking refuge; most notably in the wake of the Hungarian uprising in 1956, after the suppression following the Prague Spring in 1968 and during the wars in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

This time was different. First, the sheer number of arrivals in such a short period of time – at the height of the crisis 10,000 to 12,000 people arrived at the Austrian border every day – stretched our admission capacities to the limit. Secondly, migrants and refugees this time did not flee from our immediate neighborhood. They travelled through several safe third countries, including EU member states, before arriving in their country of choice in Central Europe. And thirdly, it very quickly became clear that a successful integration of so many people with a very different cultural background and often lower levels of education would present a huge challenge for our society.

For me it was of utmost importance to regain control of the situation, speak out the – perhaps uncomfortable – truth and find solutions. It was therefore important that we managed to close the “Western Balkans route” together with our partners along the route in March 2016. It had almost immediately the intended effect of drastically reducing arrivals on Greek islands to less than 1,000 persons per day from previously 5,000 to 10,000 per day.

While we managed to close the “Western Balkans route” last year, the central Mediterranean route remained open. More and more migrants chose this dangerous route. The numbers of arrivals rose steadily as did the number of persons tragically drowning in the Mediterranean Sea. In 2016 arrivals of migrants and refugees in Italy increased by 20%. In total 168,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Italy last year. In many cases NGO vessels operating in the area to rescue migrants from drowning in the sea, effectively became a ticket to Central Europe.

Since then the situation has improved on the Central Mediterranean route thanks largely to significant efforts undertaken by Italy to manage the crisis. A newly introduced code-of-conduct for NGOs conducting “search-and-rescue missions” in the Mediterranean prevents them from doing so in Libyan waters and obliges them to cooperate with state authorities. Improved cooperation with the Libyan coast guard has also considerably contributed to preventing people from undertaking the often deadly journey.

The migration crisis is not solved, though. In Austria we register asylum applications still above the pre-crisis level. An estimated one million migrants – mostly from Western and Sub-Saharan Africa – still wait in Libya hoping for their chance to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Migratory pressure will not decrease either. Africa’s population is expected to double in the next 30 years reaching 2 billion people.

A robust control of the European Union’s external borders remains a prerequisite if we want to find sustainable solutions for the migration crisis. FRONTEX, the EU agency tasked with developing and coordinating the European border management, is increasingly becoming more effective. We need to further strengthen it for it to become a true European border and coast guard. Stopping and returning illegal migrants to their countries of origin must become standard procedure. In order to bolster our readmission policy the EU should use all instruments at its disposal, including the fact that it is the most important donor of development assistance worldwide. When necessary, the EU needs to apply the “less-for-less-principle,” if partner countries refuse to cooperate in readmitting their citizens from the EU.

Resettlement programs should in turn allow those most in need of protection to find a safe and legal pathway to Europe. Currently the route to Europe is only accessible to those who are either fit enough for the journey or who can afford to pay a people smuggler. But it should be us, and not the people smugglers, who determine who is admitted to Europe. Last, but not least, we must use a more targeted approach in our development aid in the countries of origin and transit in order to tackle the root causes of migration, in close cooperation with the private sector.

The migration and refugee crisis is far from over. We therefore have to continue to do our utmost to find sustainable solutions, showing our citizens the direct benefit of European cooperation.

(Source: Time)

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