Vatican newspaper chides EU over proposed refugee deal with Turkey
March 09, 2016
In a front-page L’Osservatore Romano op-ed article, the newspaper’s vice-editor criticized European leaders for their lack of “cohesion and unity of purpose” in addressing the Syrian refugee crisis.
Over 820,000 of the 1.01 million migrants and refugees who entered Europe in 2015 did so by entering Greece, and almost all arrived by sea. An additional 131,847 migrants and refugees arrived in Greece by sea between January 1 and March 7, according to the International Organization for Migration.
EU leaders and Turkey are discussing the possibility of forcibly returning to Turkey all migrants who travel from there to Greece. Under the plan, for each migrant returned to Turkey, the EU would accept a Syrian refugee currently living in Turkey.
In these negotiations, writes vice-editor Giuseppe Fiorentino, a divided EU is ceding its leadership role to Turkey, and “only temporarily and at a high price.”
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Further information:
- Attrice non protagonista (L’Osservatore Romano)
- Migrant crisis: UN legal concerns over EU-Turkey plan (BBC)
- Mediterranean Migrant Arrivals in 2016: 141,141; Deaths: 444 (IOM)
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