http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/world/europe/turkey-syria-refugees-eu.html 2016-09-14 12:34:15 Refugees Pour Out of Turkey Once More as Deal With Europe Falters The number of refugees arriving in Greece nearly doubled last week, to more than 1,000. Many are realizing that an agreement to stanch the flow is not being enforced. === BODRUM, Turkey — The number of Syrians and others fleeing Until recently, the deal But that has started to change. More than a thousand refugees, including Syrians, Afghans, Pakistanis and Iraqis, arrived in Greece last week, nearly double the number the previous week, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. That is still far below the roughly 1,700 refugees arriving in Greece every day at the height of the crisis last year, but far more than the 50 arrivals a day in the relatively placid months after the deal was reached. It is not clear why the number of migrants is rising now. Many of them have lived in Turkey for some time and considered making a life there, difficult though that may be, particularly after hearing of the billions of dollars in aid promised by Europe in the deal, assistance that now seems threatened. For some, it may be the realization, after several months, that their dream of reaching Europe is still within reach because the Greek authorities are not, as promised, sending many Syrians back to Turkey. For others, it might be a matter of simple economics: From a peak of roughly $1,500 a person, the cost of the trip has dropped lately to as little as $500. It could be the approach of winter weather. But clearly, with acrimony between Turkey and Europe rising since the Turkish government responded to a Trying desperately to prevent that, European officials have engaged recently in a flurry of diplomacy with Turkish leaders. The Ms. Mogherini said the two sides had agreed to “talk more to each other and a little less about each other.” The discord is raising hopes among a host of Syrians and others whose plans were sidetracked when the deal was cinched in March. The other day, one of them, a Syrian named Mohammad Ibrahim, drank tea in the shade of a palm tree on the Turkish coast and looked longingly at Greece, visible across a narrow stretch of the Aegean Sea. He was waiting to meet up at night with smugglers who would help him across the waters. Like many Syrians, he said he had realized that one of the main provisions of the agreement — that migrants who risk their lives on the sea are to be sent back to Turkey — was rarely enforced. “This agreement is only on paper,” said Mr. Ibrahim, 44, who is from the war-torn city of Aleppo. “In practice, they aren’t sending us back to Turkey like they said they would. So now it is time to go.” Under the deal, the European Union pledged more than $6 billion to improve the lives of the more than three million Syrians living in Turkey. It also agreed to renew negotiations for Turkey to join the bloc, a prospect that appears dimmer than ever given the tensions between the two sides since the coup attempt. Turkish leaders feel that Europe should have stood in solidarity with Turkey at a difficult time rather than criticize Even before the coup, Europe had been criticized for ignoring “Instead of unequivocally condemning the coup and supporting the elected government’s efforts to bring the putschists to justice, Europe chose to attack Turkey’s leaders for holding the would-be junta accountable for their crimes,” Ibrahim Kalin, Mr. Erdogan’s spokesman, wrote in The main issue threatening to derail the deal is the one that is perhaps most important to Turks: visa-free travel to Europe for Turkish citizens. Turkish leaders have said that visa-free travel should be approved by October, or the deal is off. But in exchange, Turkey is supposed to narrow its broad antiterrorism laws to put them in line with European standards, something it has shown no appetite for. Turkey cites the many security threats it faces, including Kurdish militants waging war in the southeast; the Islamic State, which has carried out All along, Mr. Erdogan has threatened to unleash a new flood of refugees if the European Union fails to live up to its side of the deal. “The European Union is not behaving in a sincere manner with Turkey,” he said recently in comments published by the French newspaper Le Monde. Mr. Erdogan says the European Union has not made good on its promises of aid money, although analysts say that is only because identifying programs worthy of funding takes time. Recently, Brussels announced that it would pay almost $400 million to support millions of Syrians living outside refugee camps in Turkey. Mr. Hahn, the enlargement commissioner, expressed confidence that Turkey and the European Union could yet reach a deal on visa-free travel. “The timing is up to our Turkish colleagues,” he told reporters. “But it should be possible to find a solution.” With few refugees being sent back to Turkey, growing numbers are languishing in camps in Greece — not a great outcome, but still on European soil. Nevertheless, for many, Greece has proved a rude awakening. The days of being able to march easily on to other European countries, such as Germany, are long over, and new arrivals often find themselves living in horrid conditions in Greece. “I didn’t imagine I would see refugee families living here in schools and empty hotels,” said Mohammed Ayman, 28, a Syrian who arrived in Greece last week. “Refugees are everywhere. I was shocked by the scene.” On Monday night, Mr. Ibrahim, a carpenter from Aleppo who was wounded this year in fighting there, tried to go to Greece with his family but was unable to do so because of bad weather. He said that he would try again on Tuesday, and that once he arrived, he would try to make it to Germany by bribing police officers and border guards along the way. “We are waiting to leave with 40 other people,” he said. “God willing, we will arrive safely.”