Mordaunt: EU is ‘Paying Lip Service to Democracy’

‘Turkey is becoming less democratic and open, it is closing down a free press and censoring free speech. Turkish border guards have used violence against Syrian asylum seekers resulting, according the Human Rights Watch, in deaths, including that of a child. Its treatment of refugees and its turning a blind eye to human trafficking have also been much criticised.

‘Yet despite the obvious departure from the conditions and behaviours we demand for membership of the EU, we’ve agreed to speed up the process. Merkel’s overruling her own Foreign Minister to enable satirist Jan Böhmermann to face trial for a poem he had written criticising Erdoğan shows how fragile the principles of freedom and democracy have become in order to secure Turkey’s co-operation to mitigate the impact of the migrant crisis on Europe. Security and good government are not the only casualties of the EU’s policy towards Turkey.

‘The EU is paying lip service to democracy, in the same way it paid lip service to fiscal strength when creating the eurozone. Then Goldman Sachs arranged swaps allowing Greece to borrow millions of euros without adding to its official public debt in order for it to mask its growing debts and meet the conditions to join the eurozone. The human cost of doing so has been immense. But there will be a higher price still to pay for accelerating Turkey’s accession to the expansionist EU in this dishonest way.

‘The consequences of abandoning freedom, democracy and the trust of the people we serve are grave. It is a price we cannot afford to pay.’

• The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee has called for an investigation into reports that Turkish border guards have been shooting and killing Syrians trying to flee their country.

• The humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres has stopped taken money from the EU because of its response to the refugee crisis.

• Leading IN campaigner Jeremy Corbyn has slammed the EU’s deal with Turkey.

The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee has called for an investigation into reports that Turkish border guards have been shooting and killing Syrians trying to flee their country.

MEPs have today called for an investigation into reports that Turkish border guards have been shooting and killing Syrians trying to flee their country: ‘The European Union should check the veracity of reports that Turkish border guards are shooting and killing Syrians who are trying to flee their country, said the Civil Liberties Committee on Tuesday. MEPs also asked the European Commission to assess whether the EU-Turkey deal to manage migration and refugee flows can continue to apply in these circumstances’.

MEPs suggested the EU-Turkey deal might fall apart: ‘Most MEPs described the reports coming from the Syria-Turkey border as “extremely worrying” and agreed that if they proved true, then there should be “consequences”… they underlined that the refugee relocation scheme is not working and that the resettlement programme is progressing very slowly’.

The humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres has stopped taken money from the EU because of its response to the refugee crisis.

The humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres last week decried the ‘chronic deficiencies of EU policy’ and announced it will no longer take any money from a member of the EU, including Britain, in protest at the way that Europe has responded to the refugee crisis with this special deal with Turkey.  They have called it a shameful European response.

Human Rights Watch has said: ‘Turkish border guards are shooting and beating Syrian asylum seekers trying to reach Turkey, resulting in deaths and serious injuries… During March and April 2016, Turkish border guards used violence against Syrian asylum seekers and smugglers, killing five people, including a child, and seriously injuring 14 others’.

Leading IN campaigner Jeremy Corbyn has slammed the EU’s deal with Turkey.

Last night, Jeremy Corbyn, leading IN campaigner, and Leader of the Labour Party, said: ‘I challenged the Turkey deal when it came up and I said to the Prime Minister at the time that I thought the whole thing was questionably legal and indeed I think the treatment of the refugees is appalling.’

Mr Corbyn said that: ‘The co-ordinated response has actually turned Greece into a transit camp for refugees – many of whom have been returned to Turkey… I don’t blame the Greek government for this, I blame the consortium of European leaders.’