ABOUT TURKEY
Location:
Turkey is considered to be the gateway between Europe and Asia; it is an Eurasian country located on the Mediterranean stretching across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. It is bordered by the Black Sea, the Marmara Sea, the Aegean Sea and Mediterranean Sea. Official Name: Republic of Turkey Capital: Ankara |
Area: 780,580 sq. km.
Currency: New Turkish Lira (TRY) 1 EUR = 1.77209 TRY Official language: Turkish Religions: 99% Muslim, 1% other Government: Parliamentary Republic President: Abdullah Gül Population: ~68 million |
WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH SYRIAN REFUGEES IN TERKEY?
The agreement currently being negotiated between the EU and Turkey exemplifies the EU’s approach. Turkey hosts over 2 million Syrian refugees, and is a major transit country for asylum seekers and migrants from the Middle East and Asia. By the end of October, UNHCR estimated that over 500,000 people had reached Greece by sea from Turkey in 2015. Any agreement with Turkey would likely include significant aid (the European Commission has offered €1 billion and Turkey has asked for €3 billion) to improve conditions for Syrian refugees in Turkey, a relaxation of visa requirements for Turkish nationals to travel to the EU, and revived negotiations for Turkey’s accession to the EU. In exchange, Turkey would increase border controls to prevent the flow into Europe. The first draft of an EU-Turkey Action Plan published on October 6 included “preventing uncontrolled migratory flows from Turkey to the EU” as a core objective. The draft also referred to “Prevent[ing] further arrivals of irregular migrants to Turkey.” While those references were removed from a subsequent draft, Human Rights Watch has serious concerns that the EU will be willing to look the other way if Turkey prevents asylum seekers from entering Turkey from Syria, Iraq, and other countries so long as Turkey cooperates to stop the influx into the EU.
Turkey’s accession to the 1951 Refugee Convention includes a geographical limitation that recognizes only refugees from Europe. This makes it impossible for Syrians, Afghans, or Iraqis to be granted refugee status in Turkey. While Turkey has shown generosity to Syrians through a temporary protection regime, the situation for non-Syrians is much more precarious, and even Syrians are being granted protection in Turkey as a matter of political discretion rather than as a legal obligation.
The absence of an asylum system for non-European refugees in Turkey means that returning asylum seekers there risks violating the principle of non-refoulement enshrined in the Refugee Convention: individuals are not to be returned “in any manner whatsoever” to places where their life or freedom would be threatened. This applies to indirect returns as well—EU states have a positive obligation not to send someone to a place from which chain deportations resulting in refoulement would occur. Consistent with the Procedures Directive, which states that countries that have acceded to the Refugee Convention with geographical limitations cannot be regarded as safe third countries, EU governments should not return non-European asylum seekers to Turkey.
Turkey’s accession to the 1951 Refugee Convention includes a geographical limitation that recognizes only refugees from Europe. This makes it impossible for Syrians, Afghans, or Iraqis to be granted refugee status in Turkey. While Turkey has shown generosity to Syrians through a temporary protection regime, the situation for non-Syrians is much more precarious, and even Syrians are being granted protection in Turkey as a matter of political discretion rather than as a legal obligation.
The absence of an asylum system for non-European refugees in Turkey means that returning asylum seekers there risks violating the principle of non-refoulement enshrined in the Refugee Convention: individuals are not to be returned “in any manner whatsoever” to places where their life or freedom would be threatened. This applies to indirect returns as well—EU states have a positive obligation not to send someone to a place from which chain deportations resulting in refoulement would occur. Consistent with the Procedures Directive, which states that countries that have acceded to the Refugee Convention with geographical limitations cannot be regarded as safe third countries, EU governments should not return non-European asylum seekers to Turkey.