Greece on Monday designated neighboring Turkey as a secure country to find international protection for the vast majority of asylum-seekers leaving its beaches for Greece.

A joint decree in the Greek migration and foreign ministries stated the designation applies to asylum-seekers from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Somalia. It said Turkey fulfills all standards to analyze asylum requests from such nationals, as there”that they aren’t in any danger… because of their race, citizenship, faith, political beliefs or membership in certain social group, also may find asylum in Turkey rather than at Greece.”

In theory, could decrease migration flows into European Union member Greece, since it might let it return asylum-seekers from such nations to Turkey — which has a massive migrant and refugee population.

But despite pressure from the EU and Athens, Ankara has shown little appetite for carrying back migrants who attained Greece from its land, despite having a 2016 Turkish-EU arrangement that was supposed to stem illegal migration to the 27-nation bloc.

Greek officials said Athens has so much this season requested Turkey to return 1,453 individuals, without achievement

Mitarachi added that the conclusion”is entirely in accord with international law and enriches Greece’s legal arsenal against (asylum) requests by taxpayers of… Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Somalia, who have no reason to not consider Turkey a secure state.”

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Greece and Turkey are historic regional rivals, and military tensions rose dangerously last year over marine boundaries. Athens accuses Ankara of using migration as a weapon, pointing to the Turkish government’s failed bid last year, before the military tension, to wave thousands of migrants and refugees towards Greece.

Several human rights groups have accused Greece of illegally deporting some migrants to Turkey without letting them apply for asylum. Athens denies that.

Although a record 1 million people entered Greece through Turkey in 2015 — mostly seeking to move on to wealthier EU countries — flows have since been greatly reduced.

So far this year, just over 3,000 people have reached Greece from Turkey, mostly by sea in flimsy craft. According to the U.N. refugee agency, 47% were Afghans, 15% were Syrians and 9% were Somalis