Volunteers walk on a pile of lifejackets left behind by refugees and migrants who arrived to the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey last year Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3606168/Turkey-deliberately-selecting-uneducated-sick-Syrians-Europe-cherry-picking-wants-keep.html#ixzz49l6Udxnw Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Imagine the billions Turkey made from making these lifejeckets Volunteers walk on a pile of lifejackets left behind by refugees and migrants who arrived to the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey last year

BY Josie Ensor, istanbul Justin Huggler, berlin

The EU’s controversial migrant deal with Turkey looked in renewed doubt on Monday amid accusations that Turkey is “cherry-picking” skilled Syrian refugees while sending the “sick and illiterate” to Europe.

A Turkish government official told the Daily Telegraph they had the ‘right’ to choose who stays in Turkey.

Angela Merkel held talks with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, in Istanbul today in a bid to shore up the deal, which she personally negotiated.

But she was unable to quell growing concern across the EU at Mr Erdogan’s handling of the deal.

Mrs Merkel admitted agreement on visa-free travel to Europe for Turkish citizens, a key part of the deal, was in jeopardy.

And she expressed “deep concern” over moves by Mr Erdogan’s government to strip MPs of immunity from prosecution in a crackdown on the opposition.

The talks took place amid accusations by EU officials that Turkey is using the deal to send ill and unqualified Syrian refugees to Europe while blocking the exit applications of skilled professionals.

Under the deal agreed in March, the EU will resettle one Syrian refugee from Turkey in exchange for each Syrian deported from Greece.

At an internal EU meeting in Brussels last week, a representative of Luxembourg claimed Turkey was sending “serious medical cases” and blocking those more likely to integrate into European societies.

The UN refugee agency usually decides who is eligible for resettlement, but the Turkish authorities have reportedly excluded Syrian doctors, engineers and academics from the scheme.

A Turkish government official told the Telegraph it was the country’s “right” to choose who remains, as it is hosting more than three million Syrian refugees.

So far some 400 asylum-seekers have been returned to Turkey and 177 refugees resettled in Europe, but 8,500 asylum-seekers still in Greece are believed to be covered by the deal.

The latest row will only make it harder for Mrs Merkel to defend the deal, under which Turkey is supposed to get visa-free travel and billions in aid in return for stopping the migrants.

The German chancellor has come under fire for putting the security of Europe’s borders in the hands of Mr Erdogan’s repressive regime.

“I’ve made clear in the conversation today that I think we need an independent judicial system, we need independent media and we need a strong parliament in Turkey,” Mrs Merkel said after her talks with Mr Erdogan on Monday.

“And of course, the decision to withdraw immunity from every fourth lawmaker in the Turkish parliament is something that causes deep concern. I’ve made this clear to the Turkish president.”

She admitted agreement on visa-free travel by the original deadline of July 1 was unlikely, and insisted Turkey will have to meet all of the EU’s criteria, including reform of anti-terror laws.

“We must do everything that we can to continue discussions, as it is unlikely that by July 1 certain things will be in place,” she said.

“In other words, there will be no visa exemption if the criteria are not fulfilled.”

Other EU leaders have gone much further in their criticism. Martin Schulz, the president of the European parliament, described the decision to strip opposition MPs of immunity as a “stunning rejection of the values of Europe”.

Mr Erdogan’s policies “don’t just make negotiations on Turkish EU membership difficult, they make it virtually impossible,” Mr Schulz said.

Mrs Merkel is also facing political pressure at home, with her coalition government deeply divided over the deal.

Horst Seehofer, the state prime minister of Bavaria and chief critic of her “open-door” refugee policy, spoke out against the deal, saying “The ends don’t justify the means”.

But Turkey is refusing to back down. Yigit Bulut, an adviser to Mr Erdogan, warned that if the EU failed to live up to its promises Turkey would suspend the deal.

“Let them continue to apply double standards, let them continue not to keep their promises for Turkish citizens,” Mr Bulut said.

“But they should know that if they maintain this attitude Turkey will take some very radical decisions very soon.”

Mr Erdogan said yesterday Turkey has not received enough support from the international community in tackling the Syrian refugee crisis.

“The current system falls short… the burden is shouldered only by certain countries, everyone should assume responsibility from now on,” he said.

Istanbul is currently hosting the world’s first-ever global humanitarian summit, where politicians from 175 countries have gathered to come up with a way to deal with what is the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.

After forcing out his prime minister, President Erdogan muzzles the press

CAN DUNDAR saw the shooter approach and take aim at his legs. “He drew his gun, called me a traitor, and began firing,” he says, recalling the scene on May 6th outside an Istanbul courthouse, where he and a colleague have been standing trial. His wife grabbed the gunman, and Mr Dundar (pictured, right), one of Turkey’s best-known journalists, survived unscathed. Just hours later, he was sentenced to nearly six years in jail for publishing details of covert Turkish arms shipments to Syrian insurgents in Cumhuriyet, the newspaper where he served as editor-in-chief. The paper’s Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul (pictured, left), was sentenced to five years. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had called on the pair to “pay a heavy price” for revealing state secrets, has kept mum about the attack. Pro-government newspapers suggested it had been staged to attract sympathy for its target.

These are dark days for journalism in Turkey. The latest press freedom index by Reporters Without Borders puts the country in 151st place, between Tajikistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Censorship is the industry standard. News reports from the Kurdish southeast, where clashes between armed separatists and Turkish security forces have claimed more than a thousand lives since last summer, increasingly resemble army propaganda. The dead are referred to either as “martyrs” or “terrorists”; civilians, at least 250 of whom have been killed in the fighting, are seldom mentioned.

Journalists are routinely sacked or dragged through the courts. In late April two columnists, also from Cumhuriyet, were given prison terms for republishing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. Mr Dundar blames Mr Erdogan and his government. “Most of our media [have] already surrendered,” he says. “Now they are trying to silence the rest.”

The departure of prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, hounded into resigning last week, and the pending appointment of a more pliant successor, will make that task easier. For over a year, Mr Erdogan has been pushing for constitutional changes that will give him sweeping new powers. He is now ratcheting up his campaign to transform Turkey’s system of government from a parliamentary to presidential one. “At this point,” he said in a speech on May 6th, “there is no turning back.”

To get those changes, he will need an early election, a referendum, or both. But it may no longer matter. With Mr Davutoglu out of the way, one of the last checks on Mr Erdogan’s power is gone. “This effectively marks the end of parliamentary democracy in Turkey,” says one political strategist. “Davutoglu may not have been a huge reformist, but the fact that he was in the system gave people some reassurance that things would not lead in the direction of one-man rule,” says Asli Aydintasbas of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank. That reassurance is now gone.

A deal that promised visa-free travel to the EU for Turkish citizens, in exchange for a range of reforms and a commitment to stem illegal migration to Europe, offered some hope of emboldening the reformists in the Turkish government. That deal is now hanging on by a thread.

Mr Erdogan seems more than happy to snap it. In his speech, the Turkish leader slammed Europe for asking Turkey to amend its laws against terrorism, which are increasingly used to prosecute Kurdish activists and other critics, including Mr Dundar. “The EU says: you will change the anti-terror law for visas,” he said. “Pardon me, but we are going our way and you can go yours.”

Source: economist.com

Turkey is accused of sending ‘seriously sick’ Syrian migrants to Greece while ‘cherry-picking’ doctors and engineers for its own workforce

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