Pros and Cons of the EU–Turkey Refugee Deal and Why the Cons Prevail
Abstract
The ‘EU–Turkey deal’ is a catchy nickname of the official document the ‘EU–Turkey Statement’; a result of meetings between EU and Turkey leaders. Although the EU–Turkey deal served as a basis for actions taken in relation to migration both on the side of the EU with its member states and on the side of Turkey, its legal nature remains questionable. Accusations emerged that the EU–Turkey deal resulted in the EU states’ failure to comply with the obligations in the field of human rights, particularly the rights of refugees. Yet, according to the judicial review, the individual member states are the ones responsible for implementing the EU–Turkey deal. The purpose of this article is to examine migration-related issues of the EU–Turkey deal. As the EU–Turkey Statement deals mainly with the status of Syrian refugees, legal implications of their status after the deal are one of the main subjects of this research. This article focuses primarily on the deal’s legal effects and its predominantly negative effects.
References
Afailal, H., Fernandez, M. (2018) ‘The Externalization of European Borders: The Other Face of Coloniality Turkey as a Case Study’, Athens Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 4(3), pp. 215–224; https://doi.org/10.30958/ajms.4-3-3.
Amnesty International (2016) ‘Turkey ‘safe country’ sham revealed as dozens of Afghans forcibly returned hours after EU refugee deal’, Amnesty International, 23 March 2016. [Online]. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2016/03/turkey-safe-country-sham-revealeddozens-of-afghans-returned/ (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Conant, E. (2023) ‘The World’s Congested Human Migration Routes in 5 Maps’, International Organization for Migration [Online]. Available at: https://weblog.iom.int/worlds-congested-human-migration-routes-5-maps (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Cossé, E. (2022) ‘European Court Slams Greece Over Deadly Migrant Pushback Inquiry on Pushbacks Is Urgently Needed’, Human Rights Watch, 8 July 2022 [Online]. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/08/europeancourt-slams-greece-over-deadly-migrant-pushback (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Dawi, A. (2022) ‘Turkey Deports Thousands to Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan’, Voice of America, 16 June 2022 [Online]. Available at: https://www.voanews.com/a/turkey-deports-thousands-to-taliban-controlledafghanistan/6620683.html (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
den Heijer, M., Spijkerboer, T. (2016) ‘Is the EU-Turkey refugee and migration deal a treaty?’, EU Law Analysys, 7 April 2016 [Online]. Available at: http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2016/04/is-eu-turkey-refugee-and-migrationdeal.html (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Duarte, M. (2020) ‘EU-Turkey Refugee Deal: Buck-Passing and Bargaining on Human Lives at Risk?’, Kaygı. Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Felsefe Dergisi, 19(1), pp. 276–293; https://doi.org/10.20981/kaygi.705300.
Ergin, A. D. (2020) ‘What Happened at the Greece-Turkey Border in early 2020?’, Verfassungsblog, 30 September 2020 [Online]. Available at: https://verfassungsblog.de/what-happened-at-the-greece-turkey-border-inearly-2020/ (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
European Commission (2016a) ‘EU-Turkey Statement: Questions and Answers’, European Commission, 19 March 2016 [Online]. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/MEMO_16_963 (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
European Commission (2016b) ‘Implementing the EU-Turkey Agreement – Questions and Answers’, 20 April 2016. [Online]. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/MEMO_16_1494 (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
European Commission (2022a) ‘The Facility for Refugees in Turkey: The Facility Results Framework Monitoring Report No. 10. Results Achievement Progress (As of 30 June 2022)’, European Commission, December 2022. [Online]. Available at: https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-01/10th%20Facility%20Monitoring%20Report.pdf (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
European Commission (2022b) ‘The Facility for Refugees in Turkey: Results Framework’, European Commission, June 2022 [Online]. Available at: https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2022-06/Facility%20Results%20Framework_Jun2022.pdf (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
European Commission (2023a) ‘New Pact on Migration and Asylum’, European Commission, 3 November 2022. [Online]. Available at: https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/promoting-oureuropean-way-life/new-pact-migration-and-asylum_en (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
European Commission (2023b) ‘The EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey’, European Commission, June 2023. [Online]. Available at: https://neighbourhood-enla rgement.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-08/frit _factsheet .pdf (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
European Council (2015) ‘European Council meeting (15 October 2015) – Conclusions’, European Council, 15 October 2015 [Online]. Available at: https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-26-2015-INIT/en/pdf (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
European Council (2023) ‘Western Balkans route’, European Council, 22 May 2023. [Online]. Available at: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-migration-policy/western-balkans-route/ (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Gkliati, M. (2017) ‘The EU-Turkey Deal and the Safe Third Country Concept before the Greek Asylum Appeals Committees’, Movements, 3(2), pp. 213–224 [Online]. Available at: https://repository.ubn.ru.nl/bitstream/handle/2066/239129/239129.pdf?sequence=1 (Accessed: 22 November 2023).
Hardie, A., Isaac, L., Haq, S. N., McGee, L. (2023) ‘UK’s Rwanda deportation plan ‘unlawful,’ court of appeal rules’, CNN World, 29 June 2023 [Online]. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/29/uk/uk-government-rwanda-rulingintl-gbr/index.html (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Hathaway, J. C. (2016) ‘Three legal requirements for the EU-Turkey deal: An interview with James Hathaway’, Verfassungsblog, 9 March 2016 [Online]. Available at: https://verfassungsblog.de/three-legal-requirements-for-theeu-turkey-deal-an-interview-with-james-hathaway/ (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Heck, G., Hess, S. (2017) ‘Tracing the effects of the EU-Turkey deal. The Momentum of the Multi-layered Turkish Border Regime’, Movements, 3(2), pp. 35–57 [Online]. Available at: https://movements-journal.org/issues/05.turkey/04.heck,hess--tracing-the-effects-of-the-eu-turkey-deal.pdf (Accessed: 22 November 2023).
Idriz, N. (2017a) ‘Taking the EU-Turkey Deal to Court?’, Verfassungsblog, 20 December 2017 [Online]. Available at: https://verfassungsblog.de/taking-theeu-turkey-deal-to-court/ (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Idriz, N. (2017b) ‘The EU-Turkey statement or the ´refugee deal´: the extralegal deal of extraordinary times?’, The Migration Crisis, T.M.C. Asser Institute for International & European Law, Research Paper, 4 December 2017 [Online]. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3080881# (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Jones, D. (2020) ‘Inside Europe: Turkey opens border for migrants’, Deutsche Welle, 3 June 2020 [Online]. Available at: https://www.dw.com/en/insideeurope-turkey-opens-border-for-migrants/audio-52651447 (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Karska, E., Morawska, E. H., Czepek, J., Dąbrowski, L. D., Oręziak, B., Gałka, K. (eds.) (2023) Human Rights in the European Paradigm of the Protection of Aliens. Warsaw: Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw [Online]. Available at. https://wydzialy.uksw.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Human-Rights-in-the-European-Paradigm-of-the-Protection-of-Aliens-ebook.pdf (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Kirişci, K. (2021) ‘As EU-Turkey migration agreement reaches the five year mark, add a job creation element’, Brookings, 17 March 2021 [Online]. Available at: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/03/17/as-eu-turkey-migration-agreement-reaches-the-five-year-mark-add-a-jobcreation-element/ (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Leghtas, I. (2019) ‘Insecure Future: Deportations and Lack of Legal Work for Refugees in Turkey’, Refugees International Report, 19 September 2019 [Online]. Available at: https://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports/2019/9/18/insecure-future-deportations-and-lack-of-legal-work-for-refugees-inturkey (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Leino-Sandberg, P., Wyatt, D. (2018) ‘No public interest in whether the EU-Turkey refugee deal respects EU Treaties and international human rights?’, European Law Blog, 28 February 2018 [Online]. Available at: https://europeanlawblog.eu/2018/02/28/no-public-interest-in-whether-the-euturkey-refugee-deal-respects-eu-zreaties-and-international-human-rights/ (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Pijnenburg, A. (2018) ‘JR and others v Greece: What does the court (not) say about the EU-Turkey statement?’, Strasbourg Observers, 21 February 2018 [Online]. Available at: https://strasbourgobservers.com/2018/02/21/jr-and-others-v-greece-what-does-the-court-not-say-about-the-eu-turkeystatement/ (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Psaropoulos, J. (2020) ‘Greece on the defensive as Turkey opens border to refugees’, Aljazeera, 1 March 2020 [Online]. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/3/1/greece-on-the-defensive-as-turkey-opens-border-torefugees (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Poon, J. (2016) ‘EU-Turkey Deal: Violation of, or Consistency with, International Law?’, European Papers, 1(3), pp. 1195–1203 [Online]. Available at: https://www.europeanpapers.eu/fr/europeanforum/eu-turkey-deal-violation-orconsistency-with-international-law (Accessed: 22 November 2023).
Rönsberg, A. (2016) ‘EU-Turkey migrant deal done’, Deutsche Welle, 18 March 2016 [Online]. Available at: https://www.dw.com/en/eu-turkey-migrant-dealdone/a-19127595 (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Smith, H. (2023) ‘Greek government under fire after video shows ‘pushback’ of asylum seekers’, The Guardian, 19 May 2023 [Online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/19/greek-government-under-fire-aftervideo-shows-pushback-of-asylum-seekers (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Tunaboylu, S., Alpes, J. (2017) ‘The EU-Turkey deal: what happens to people who return to Turkey?’, Forced Migration, February 2017 [Online]. Available at: https://www.fmreview.org/resettlement/tunaboylu-alpes (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
Wesel, B. (2021) ‘Turkey migration deal a ‘stain on EU rights record’, Deutsche Welle, 17 March 2021. [Online]. Available at: https://www.dw.com/en/turkeymigration-deal-a-stain-on-eu-rights-record/a-56903392 (Accessed: 17 July 2023).
