Laurence Dollimore
POLITICAL party Izquierda Unida filed a court complaint yesterday against Mariano Rajoy for ‘crimes against humanity’ over his support of the EU accord to send refugees back to Turkey.
The controversial deal has been heavily criticised by activists, right groups and opposition parties since it was signed last month.
The deal sees Syrian refugees arriving on Greece shores get sent to Turkey in return for Turkish asylum seekers being allowed into Europe.
Head of Izquierda Unida (IU) Alberto Garzon said: “Mr.Rajoy is making us accomplices in this atrocity.”
He added that the refugees were fleeng wars often directly provoked by Western countries: “At the doors of Europe, they come across a lack of solidarity and asylum, and detention camps that clearly violate human rights, international law, and the principles and values on which the European Union should have been built.”
The party filed its complaint to the Supreme Court, accusing Rajoy and other European leaders of agreeing to forcibly deport and transfer an unspecified number of people from EU territory.
According to IU lawyers, this represents a crime against humanity under the Spanish penal code.
The past year has seen hundreds of thousands of people arrive on Greece’s shores after crossing over from Turkey in boats.
The deal struck with Turkey has been slammed by rights groups, the UN and the pope, who used his Easter address to criticise the accord.
