Greek judges rule Turkey ‘unsafe’ for refugees

A committee of Greek judges have refused to send a Syrian asylum seeker back to Turkey, because it is “unsafe for refugees”.

They warned that migrants do not enjoy basic human rights in Turkey and that many are at risk of being deported back to war-torn Syria.

The BBC quoted a source at the Greek migration ministry as saying that the judges were only deciding whether the asylum seeker’s case could be heard in Greece or not.

Amnesty International said that the ruling throws the EU-Turkey migrant deal into doubt.

According to the deal, migrants arriving in Greece are sent back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or if their claim is rejected. Over 400 people have been sent back to Turkey since the deal came into force in March.

On the same day the judges' ruling emerged, Greek and EU authorities sent back 51 migrants to Turkey on boats from the islands of Lesbos and Kos.

“Turkey is not currently protecting migrants and refugees to the standards of the refugee convention,” Amnesty spokesman Giorgos Kosmopoulos told the BBC. "Until it becomes a safe country nobody should be returned there.”

He added that migrants in Turkey could not expect access to the rights to work, medical care or family life and there had been "widespread returns of Syrians back to Syria from Turkey".

"The whole (EU) deal should stop and refugees should be settled in other European countries safely and with dignity," Kosmopoulos said.