Via T24 (Link in Turkish) – The Mayor of the Parliamentary Sub-Commission on Refugees and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Antalya Deputy Atay Uslu said that currently 4.3 million migrants live in Turkey. 3.6 million of them are Syrians. There are 300 thousand Iraqis, Palestinians and other international protection seekers living in Turkey. Uslu pointed out that only 3 people hold a refugee status in Turkey.
Via Hurriyet Daily News – A total of three Afghan and Pakistani refugees were killed in a fire that erupted in a container they had been living in in Istanbul on Jan. 12. The fire was reportedly ignited from an electric heater. The killed refugees had been living in a container in Istanbul’s Beylikdüzü district and earning their living by gathering paper in the streets. Continue reading Two Afghan, one Pakistani refugee killed in container fire in Istanbul→
Via Akşam (link in Turkish) – 101 foreign people were caught in Izmir’s Dikili and Çeşme districts, while they were trying to cross into Greece.
The coast guards stopped a boat, which was detected in the district of Dikili. 71 people, including 65 Syrian and 6 Afghan nationals, were caught. Then, the coast guards moved to the Çeşme district on the notice that a group of irregular migrants was about to cross into Greece. The guard caught 30 of the Syrians who were in the boat. Continue reading 101 migrants were stopped in the Aegean Sea→
Via Al-Monitor– This past November, three bodies were found washed ashore the Greek island of Lesbos. They were later identified as a Turkish husband and wife, Huseyin and Nur Maden, and one of their three children. The Madens were teachers in Turkey, but they were among the 150,000 civil servants dismissed from their jobs after the failed coup in July 2016. Some of those dismissed tried to flee to Greece to avoid arrest or find work. More than 12,000 Turks applied for asylum in Europe for the first time in 2017, according to Eurostat. This figure is triple what it was the year preceding the failed coup and is the highest it has been in the past decade. Continue reading A new refugee flow to Europe: Turkish refugees→
Via Ekathimerini– In a bid to reduce overcrowding at migrant reception centers on the Aegean islands, the government is to propose to Turkey that asylum seekers who are not high on the list of eligibility for protection be transferred to camps on the mainland and subsequently to Turkey, Kathimerini understands.
“We are asking that we be allowed to conduct returns either directly from the islands or from the mainland in the context of the EU-Turkey joint statement,” a government official told Kathimerini, referring to a deal between Brussels and Ankara signed in March 2016 aimed at curbing migrant smuggling across the Aegean. Continue reading Athens to propose transfer of migrants to Ankara→
Via T24 (Link in Turkish) – It is stated that the wall built on the Iranian border will be completed in the first 6 months of 2018. The Prime Ministry Housing Development Administration (TOKİ), which has built the third longest wall in the world on the Syrian border, has completed half of the 144-kilometer wall which is being built on the Turkish-Iranian border. TOKİ Chairman Ergün Turan said that the 57,152 kilometer part of the wall was built on the border of Ağrı with the remaining 86,848 kilometers in Iğdır. Turan said that the border wall will be completed in the first 6 months of 2018.
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Statewatch published letters about the EU-Turkey Deal that had been exchanged between the European Commission, the Turkish and the Greek government between April and July 2016!
EU-TURKEY DODGY DEAL: Letters between the Commission and the Turkish and Greek governments April-July 2016 (pdf)https://t.co/mJ5vE8P4bP
ViaEkathimerini– An administrative court on Monday issued an order to temporarily freeze a decision to grant asylum to one of eight Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece after a failed Turkish coup in 2016 with the case to be heard next month. Meanwhile, following a decision by the Greek Police’s immigration unit, the serviceman is to remain in custody until a final decision is issued on his asylum.
Via Hurriyet Daily News (Article from 27th December 17) – The European Union has finished contracting three billion Euros that will be used for Syrian refugees in Turkey, the head of the EU delegation in Ankara has announced, informing that all these funds will be distributed under 72 separate projects.
“Yesterday we signed the very last contract with the KfW which means that now the entire amount of three billion euros we offered in 2016 are now contracted, legally bound and being implemented,” Ambassador Christian Berger told reporters on Dec. 27.
