EUROPEAN leaders have disgraced themselves by cutting a “reckless and illegal” deal to throw the world’s most vulnerable people onto Turkey’s failing asylum system, huma rights activists said yesterday.

Amnesty International hit out at EU-Turkey refugee agreements which allow mass dumping of “irregular migrants” on Turkish shores after its new report shredded policymakers’ pretences that the mostly Syrian refugees will be treated safely and fairly.

Researchers for the charity found that the Turkish asylum system fails three crucial tests required under international law for the return of asylum-seekers.

Amnesty interviewed 57 refugees in Turkey between March and May. Everyone spoken to described a struggle to survive with almost no financial support from authorities, with most relying on charity from family members, fellow asylum-seekers or religious communities.

Many families live in shoddy or makeshift accommodation, sometimes sleeping in mosques, parks and metro stations because they cannot afford to rent, the charity found.

The researchers concluded that Turkey’s government is unable to properly assess asylum status, respond safely to refugee displacement or meet asylum-seekers’ basic needs.

Rather than offload its responsibilities on Turkey, the EU should kick-start an ambitious resettlement programme, they said.

Amnesty Europe and Central Asia director John Dalhuisen said: “The European Union has responded to one of the darkest humanitarian catastrophes of our time by putting up fences, deploying more border guards and striking dodgy deals with neighbouring countries to keep people out. The result is misery and suffering, and more deaths at sea.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was also critical yesterday, saying: “Collectively, as a continent we have failed, failed to co-ordinate our efforts, failed those countries like Greece and Italy that have seen desperate people land on their shores in unprecedented number. And, tragically, we have failed people who desperately need and deserve our help.”

Turkey already hosts more than three million asylum-seekers and refugees — and the EU deal has been swelling those numbers every day.

The Amnesty report also explodes right-wing myths about asylum-seekers and migrants.

It cites the case of Faiza (whose name has been changed) and her sister, both Afghans, who fled forced marriages in Iran and were recognised as refugees in Turkey.

The pair waited for three years for an interview at a resettlement country’s embassy — but in the end they saw no other option but to risk their lives in a smuggler’s boat to Greece.

Faiza said: “If there was any hope of resettlement, we would have waited. We were scared of the journey to Europe because we knew it was dangerous. But … we were so desperate.”