Turkey is accused of sending 'seriously sick' Syrian migrants to Greece while 'cherry-picking' doctors and engineers for its own workforce
- Around three million Syrian refugees are currently living in Turkey
- Turkey has been accused of sending 'serious medical cases' to Greece
- Ankara is also said to have excluded doctors and engineers from EU deal
- A Turkish official told the Telegraph they had the right to 'choose'
- Under a deal with the EU, Turkey is supposed to stop the flow of migrants
Turkey
has been accused of cherry-picking the most qualified of Syrian
refugees while sending on to Europe thousands of sick and uneducated
migrants.
At
an internal European Union meeting in Brussels last week a Luxembourg
government official claimed Turkey was sending 'serious medical cases'
to Greece.
Turkey
is currently home to around three million refugees from the civil war
in Syria, many of them housed in squalid camps along the border.
Volunteers walk on a pile of
lifejackets left behind by refugees and migrants who arrived to the
Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey last
year
Many
are desperate to travel across the Aegean Sea to Greece or across the
border to Bulgaria, where they can gain access to the EU.
Under
a deal agreed in March, the EU will resettle one Syrian refugee from
Turkey in exchange for each Syrian deported from Greece.
But
Turkey has been accused of sending ill and unskilled Syrian refugees on
to Europe while blocking the exit applications of skilled
professionals.
Migrants throw rocks toward the Greek
police during a scuffle at the Macedonian border, in Idomeni earlier
this week. The status of around 8,500 asylum-seekers in Greece has yet
to be decided
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
right, shakes hands with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, prior to their
meeting at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul this week
The
UN refugee agency usually decides on eligibility for resettlement but
Turks have reportedly excluded Syrian doctors, engineers and academics
from the scheme.
A Turkish government official told the Daily Telegraph they had the 'right' to choose who stays in Turkey.
Around
400 asylum-seekers have been returned to Turkey and 177 refugees
resettled in Europe, but the status of 8,500 asylum-seekers in Greece
has yet to be decided.
The
German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is on the defensive over the March
deal, under which Turkey is supposed to get visa-free travel and six
billion euros (£4.64billion) in aid in return for stopping the flow of
Syrian migrants.
She
told Turkey's president this week that Ankara must fulfill all the EU's
conditions before securing visa-free travel for Turkish citizens.
'No Muslims on German Soil': Thousands of right-wing...
Turkey threatens to suspend agreements with EU
One of
the sticking points is Turkey's human rights record and its draconian
anti-terrorism laws, which have been used to target journalists and
political dissidents.
The
EU planned to introduce visa-free entry for Turks on June 30 but
although Turkey has fulfilled most of the 72 conditions Turkish
president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused to budge on the terrorism
laws.
Erdogan
has accused the EU of supporting Kurdish rebels, who are at war with
the Turkish state, and has warned the migrant deal could collapse.
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