Turkey stops 52 Syrian refugees going to Germany

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Turkey is refusing to let 52 Syrian refugees leave for Germany, despite the EU country granting them visas, German news agency dpa reported Tuesday.

EU sources told dpa that the Turkish administration responsible for refugees, DGMM, admitted last week in a meeting in Ankara that they did not want highly qualified Syrian refugees to leave Turkey for Europe.


Under the refugee-swap deal signed between the EU and Turkey in March, Turkey can send one Syrian refugee to Europe for every refugee it takes back from the Greek islands.

Almost 300 other Syrian refugees were allowed to leave for Germany by Turkish authorities between April and last Thursday, a spokesperson for the German interior ministry told dpa. But 52 were not authorized to leave Turkish territory.

“No reasons have been given until now to explain why they did not grant them the authorization to leave,” the spokesperson said.

German magazine Spiegel reported last month that a Luxembourg diplomat in Brussels had complained that, among the refugees that Turkey was ready to let go, there were many “difficult medical cases and refugees with a very low level of qualification.”