At the same time, in a progress report that was presented today in Brussels, the commission referred to the possibility of special measures which might have to be taken in order to repeat some migrant relocations in agreement with the Dublin treaty. The treaty states that the country responsible to overview and evaluate the asylum petitions is the country of first entrance.
The commissioner responsible for migration, D.Avramopoulos gave a press interview where he stated that the migrants will not have the right to go to any country they chose.
Mr.Avramopoulos also stated that Italy and Greece must step up and operate the hot spots to the maximum level.
Earlier on, the Greek Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, J.Mouzalas, noted that the Greek government must be ready for a possible closure of the borders. He clarified that this is a possibility, but it would be one sided action, undertaken by foreign countries as Greece does not wish to see such a development.
Mr.Mouzalas also accused FYROM by stating that “they are mistaken concerning the fences since by closing the Eidomeni borders, we will lose our only chance to keep the influx towards Europe under control”.
At the same time the Dept. Minister spoke about the possible intervention of NATO in the problem areas of migration. He noted that his could be an positive development if it were to assure that NATO and Frontex will be able to operate within Turkey waters and if they were able to “push” the migrants back onto Turkish land.
The report about the Action Plan between Turkey and the EU, which was presented today, notes that Turkey must achieve progress as soon as possible in its duty to prevent illegal departures of migrants from its land towards Europe. It should achieve that by increasing its land based operations.
According to data from that report, the number of people who reached the EU via Turkey has been “steadily” diminishing since October 2015 yet the total number of arrivals still remains in “high levels” given the time of the year. The daily average arrivals from Turkey to Greece were 2.186 in January while they were 6.929 in October and 3.575 in December.
The report urges Turkey to optimize the application of the agreement for the relocation of migrants from Greece, while it also request the country to impose the re-entrance agreement between E.U. and Turkey for third world countries from June 1st 2016.
Turkey is also asked to fortify its coastal patrol and develop its legal structure, its actions and its co-operation with EU member states for against human trafficking.