Artsakhpress

International

EU migrant crisis: Sweden 'to expel up to 80,000 failed asylum-seekers'

Sweden expects to expel up to 80,000 asylum-seekers whose applications have been rejected, BBC News reports, citing the interior minister.

EU migrant crisis: Sweden 'to expel up to 80,000 failed asylum-seekers'

EU migrant crisis: Sweden 'to expel up to 80,000 failed asylum-seekers'

STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 28, ARTSAKHPRESS: Anders Ygeman said that charter aircraft would be used to deport the migrants over several years.

"We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000," Swedish media quoted him as saying.

Some 163,000 migrants applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015, the highest per capita number in Europe.

Of the approximately 58,800 cases processed last year, 55% were accepted.

Earlier on Wednesday, Greece's government responded to allegations in a draft European Commission report that it had "seriously neglected" its obligations to control the external frontier of Europe's passport-free Schengen zone.

Greek government spokeswoman Olga Gerovasili accused the Commission of "blame games" and said it had failed to act on a programme agreed last year to relocate tens of thousands of migrants and refugees stranded in Greece.

Europe is struggling to deal with a crisis that has seen tens of thousands more migrants arrive on Greek beaches, undeterred by cold wintry conditions.

The UN says more than 46,000 people have arrived in Greece so far this year, with more than 170 people killed making the dangerous crossing.

Turmen said when there is a serious threat posed against the right to life, the European court makes urgent decisions and that the tendency to do this is growing. “This reveals that domestic law in Turkey does not function properly and there is an inability to generate solutions to problems brought before the judiciary. Also, this indicates that Turkey is moving away from the rule of law, which deepens the crisis of fair trials. All this is the result of the politicized and nonfunctioning legal system,” according to the judge.

 Erdal Doğan, a former lawyer representing the family of murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, also told Today's Zaman that when applications to the ECtHR are discussed, a common point is the violation of the basic principles of criminal law such as violations of the right to a fair trial.

 “When recent trials and cases are taken into consideration, many people are given severe punishments despite the absence of solid evidence and indictments seek extreme prison sentences for suspects. Arrest rates are hitting record highs, and no satisfying justifications are provided for these arrests. People believe their demand for a fair trial will be refused if they apply to local courts and even the Constitutional Court,” Dogan said.

Dogan also stressed that many courts in Turkey issue rulings in line with the government's expectations and when the government levels accusations at people such as journalists, protesters or those who criticize it, there are many courts that will issue verdicts to punish those who the government wishes to silence.

 “The Constitutional Court also makes rulings that defend the status quo. It is not its priority to protect fundamental rights and freedoms. Its rulings are not efficient in terms of fair trials, which is why there has been a huge increase in applications to the ECtHR. This is reminiscent of the dark era of the 1990s when there were regular and serious human rights violations. In that era, villages were emptied and set on fire and government bodies regularly employed torture. Victims failed to see a result from the criminal complaints they filed against officials and many were held in prison without trial. All these deficiencies in domestic law led to people appealing to the European court as a last resort,” Dogan said.

Neshet Girasun, a lawyer who appealed to the ECtHR on December 29 of last year to try to lift the ongoing curfew in Cizre, told Today's Zaman that the request had been declined by the court. “However, the court acknowledged that locals in Cizre are trying to survive under severe conditions and called on Turkey to do its part in the matter. On Jan. 21, we made another appeal to the European court and are still waiting for the decision. The problem with the Turkish judiciary is that it does not follow the European Convention on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, despite the fact that Turkey is a signatory. They claim to defend freedom of thought, expression and assembly, but the law does not operate in the way it should in Turkey. That's why people feel obliged to seek solutions to their problems via the ECtHR instead of the Turkish judicial system,” Girasun said.

 


     

Politics

Economy

Society

Military

Most Read

month

week

day

Search