Around 1200 migrants have been sent back to Turkey from Greece since the EU-Turkey deal went into effect on March 21, 2016. Over the same time period, EU-states have taken in more than 6250 Syrian refugees from Turkey and have distributed them in 15 EU-countries. This was reported by the German daily “Bild,” citing new figures released by the European Commission.

The EU-Turkey deal had set out a fixed 1-1 ratio at which refugees were to be reallocated. This means that for every refugee being sent back from Greece to Turkey, the EU would take in one Syrian refugee from Turkey. This agreement was meant to alleviate the high influx of people in both Greece and Turkey and share the burden more evenly.

Fewer refugees sent to Turkey

According to “Bild,”Turkey is seeing the better end of the bargain so far. Deportations from Greece are stalling mainly because of “slow” asylum proceedings in Greece, as the EU states. All refugees arriving on Greek territory can apply for asylum, yet the processing can take up to months and many rejected asylum seekers file an appeal.

However, appeals courts in Greece only decide over 47 cases per week, as the EU-report states. This is seen as one of the main reasons for overcrowded camps on the Greek islands where thousands of refugees are stranded. There are an estimated 14,000 refugees cramped into camps that offer capacity for 7500.

Even though fewer people have attempted to reach Greece from Turkey since the EU-Turkey deal was signed, arrivals have continued. Since the beginning of 2017, a total of 6,142 have arrived, of which 1,859 landed in Lesvos, 2,876 in Chios and 1,407 in Samos, according to ANSA.

(InfoMigrants with dpa, KNA)