EU to offer Turkey more cash for Syrian refugees before Erdogan meeting

Via Reuters – The European Union’s executive is due to approve a further 3 billion euros (2.66 billion pounds) in funding for Syrian refugees living in Turkey, EU officials said, before a meeting with President Tayyip Erdogan later this month.

Europe’s relations with Erdogan have been fraught in recent years but the EU depends on Turkey to keep a tight lid on immigration from the Middle East, where the war in Syria has killed hundreds of thousands and pushed millions from homes. Continue reading EU to offer Turkey more cash for Syrian refugees before Erdogan meeting

Migrants: over 5,000 apprehended in Turkey in 7 days

Via ANSA med – Turkish authorities have apprehended over the past week a total of 5,371 migrants and refugees who were trying to illegally cross the borders with the European Union or to enter the country, the Turkish interior ministry has said. They included 389 who were intercepted at sea, it said. The ministry also said that 136 suspected human traffickers were arrested. Continue reading Migrants: over 5,000 apprehended in Turkey in 7 days

The (unseen) violent and forced push-backs on the Bulgarian-Turkish land border

Via Bordermonitoring Bulgaria – Last month (12th-14th February 2018) members of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in the European Parliament were present in Bulgaria to collect objective first-hand information on the Bulgarian-Turkish land border. After the visit Marie-Christine Vergiat, the leader of the committee mentioned the technique of the Bulgarian border guards who are calling the Turkish collegues to avoid an ‚official push-back‘, which would mean a violation against the Non-refoulement principle: Continue reading The (unseen) violent and forced push-backs on the Bulgarian-Turkish land border

“More than 300 000 ‘stateless’ Syrian babies born in Turkey should be granted citizenship immediately”

Via Refugee News Turkey – Some 311,000 babies of Syrian origin have been born in Turkey under the stateless status, according to the Turkish Parliament’s Refugee Subcommittee that operates under the Human Rights Committee.

The subcommittee’s president Atay Uslu said the situation is a “humanitarian plight.” Continue reading “More than 300 000 ‘stateless’ Syrian babies born in Turkey should be granted citizenship immediately”

Turkey plans to establish refugee camps in Syria

Via InfoMigrants – The Turkish government says it will set up camps for 170,000 displaced people within Syria ahead of an influx of refugees from the Syrian region of Afrin.

A spokesman for Turkey’s foreign ministry, Hami Aksoy, said on Tuesday that new refugee camps would be established in nine different regions in Syria including Azaz, Elbil, Tugli, Teleffer, Naddah, Bardakh and Masad Rufi. Continue reading Turkey plans to establish refugee camps in Syria

Humiliating Reception Conditions as a Deterrent to Prevent Refugee Arrivals on the Aegean Islands

Via RSA In the framework of their campaign #StopTheToxicdeal RSA and PROASYL publish today the first topic that concerns reception conditions.

Two years after the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement (‘deal’), the very poor reception conditions in the hot spots of the Aegean coupled with the policy of geographical restriction are two of the most important deterrence factors for refugee flows from Turkey. Continue reading Humiliating Reception Conditions as a Deterrent to Prevent Refugee Arrivals on the Aegean Islands

154 migrants Caught in Dikili

Via Milliyet (Link in Turkish) – 154 migrants were caught in Dikili, a district of Izmir, while they were trying to cross to the Greek island Lesvos by rubber boats. The Coast Guard teams intervened and intercepted 154 migrants, including women and children, mostly from Syrian, Cameroon, Ghana, Angola and Senegal. They were first brought to the Dikili Coast Guard Command. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has provided humanitarian assistance for them. It is stated that they will be sent to the Izmir Provincial Directorate of Migration after the proceedings.

157 migrants were caught in Erzincan

Via Anadolu Ajansı (Link in Turkish) – In two separate incidents in the Uzumlu county of Erzincan, 157 illegal migrants were arrested.

The gendarmerie teams were controlling on the Eastern Express train, which travels from Kars to Ankara, when they realized that a group of 40 people, nationals from Afghanistan and Pakistan, two of them women, 3 of them children, where holding fake documents. Continue reading 157 migrants were caught in Erzincan