Refugees: Turkey and Asylum

refugees: Under the 2016 EU-Turkey agreement to stem migratory flows, refugees or migrants reaching the Greek islands from Turkey will be returned there unless they can prove sufficient reason for seeking asylum in Greece rather than Turkey, according to Metro News. The decision made public Friday concerned two Syrian men, aged 21 and 29, who had their Greek asylum applications rejected and were fighting deportation to Turkey. In a case with implications for thousands of refugees in Greece and others planning to enter the country seeking asylum the court found that deported refugees face no threat of torture, inhumane or degrading treatment, or punishment in Turkey. They reached Greece's eastern island of Lesbos in July 2016, four months after the agreement came into effect. In the year leading up to it, more than a million people reached the Greek islands on their way to Europe's prosperous heartland. The EU-Turkey deal, combined with a series of Balkan border closures, had a big impact on reducing the numbers of people fleeing war or hardship who entered Greece in smuggling boats from Turkey. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.