Via Refugee Rights Turkey – Refugee Rights Turkey website has been renewed:
“The new website aims to make our various publications and activities more easily accessible to asylum seekers and migrants as well as other interested audiences. It also features some new content not previously available online.” Continue reading Refugee Rights Turkey website has been renewed
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
Via Keep Talking Greece – The geographical restriction imposed on refugees and migrants who arrived in Greece after the EU-Turkey Statement on the islands of the northern Aegean, violates the principle of human dignity, the alleged need to apply it is not substantiated, representatives of the Bar Associations in Chios, Lesvos, Rhodes, Kos and Samos, as well as the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) said in a joint press conference on Tuesday.
The five Bar Associations and the GCR have submitted two cancellation requests against the State and the Asylum Service’s decision to keep refugees and migrants on the islands until their asylum requests have been examined, which were heard earlier today by the Council of State. It is not known when the court will issue its ruling.
Hara Katsigianni, from GCR’s legal department, said the specific decision violates the European Directive 33/2013, according to which such geographical restrictions should be imposed on grounds of public interest, public order or for the rapid processing and effective monitoring of the application for international protection. However, she explained, “the provision of Article 41 of Law No 4375/2016, on the basis of which the decision on a geographical restriction was adopted, does not specify any reason of public interest or public order and does not mention the speedy monitoring of the application”.
Grammatiki Alimonou, representing the Bar Associations of Chios, Rhodes, Kos and Samos, stressed that “as far as the obligation to remain on the islands is concerned, there is no clear condition in the EU-Turkey Joint Statement”. On the contrary, she explained, the EU or the migration policy ministry interprets the statement in a way that requires refugees and migrants to remain on the islands until it is decided if they qualify for asylum and return them to Turkey from there.
“We are here to defend our islands, to defend the rights of refugees and migrants, who cannot live in appalling conditions, but to support the right of island residents to exist, to live, to create without deteriorating their daily lives,” the president of Chios’ Bar Association, Anthippi Zannara said.
This article was originally published by Keep Talking Greece
Turkish-German newspaper taz.gazete reported on Feb 23rd that since the operation olive branch, resentments against Syrians in Turkey are increasing again.
“When Heso arrived in Turkey, it were everyday encounters and dialogues that made his life difficult: “We were always asked: Why did you come to Turkey, why did not you fight?”. These questions decreased over the years. In order to persevere, they started a new life in Turkey with their families, says Heso.” Continue reading Resentments against Syrians in Turkey: “Why are you not fighting?”
On Saturday IOMtr and @IOMchief handed over 6 state-of-the-art search&rescue vessels to the Turkish Coast Guard. The vessels are part of a project that develops the capacity of the TCG to save more #migrants’ lives at sea.@IOM_ROVienna @UNmigration pic.twitter.com/tzWFjbtuVa
— IOM Türkiye (@IOMTurkiye) February 26, 2018
Via Deutschlandfunk (Link in German) – Turkey is hosting many Syrian refugees. The Turkish government always emphasized their hospitality towards the Muslim brothers. But more and more aid organizations complain about attacks against migrants. They report a pogrom-like mood against Syrians in some major cities.
Via Ekathimerini – Seventeen Turkish citizens landed on the shores of the Greek island of Oinousses in the eastern Aegean on Monday afternoon and requested asylum, the country’s coast guard has announced.
The majority are said to be civil servants and the group has been transferred to the Vial migrant center on Chios, where they will be registered and processed. Continue reading Turks land on Greece’s Oinousses island, request asylum
Via Ekathimerini (from 11th Feb) – Just 16 percent of asylum seekers who undertook the journey to Greece can be returned to Turkey under Greek law and European directives, Maria Stavropoulou, the former head of the Greek asylum service, has told Kathimerini.
“Given what we know about Turkey, those who can be shipped back are mostly Syrians, who enjoy a high level of protection,” said Stavropoulou, adding that the agency has ruled that 2,200 Syrians can be returned from Greece to Turkey on safe third country grounds. Continue reading “Only 16% of asylum seekers can be sent back to Turkey”: Maria Stavropoulou, former head of the Greek asylum service
taz.gazete published a reportage on Turkish citizens fleeing their country: Kurds, political activists, dismissed academics, people who are being acused of having ties to the coup attempt because of their membership in the Gülen movement, war objectors… For many, the first point of their flight is Greece. taz.gazete reports in German and Turkish on life for Turkish refugees in Greece.
** German version below / Deutsche Version weiter unten **
This newsletter has been published as part of the bordermonitoring.eu newsletter, which is – for now – available in German only.
EU-TURKEY DEAL
While approaching the second anniversary of the EU-Turkey Deal that was signed in March 2016, it continues to be disputed: Laura Batalla, the Secretary-General of the European Parliament Turkey Forum for example speaks of open questions “regarding its compliance with international law and the effective protection of refugees”. However, other EU institutions seem to be satisfied of its implementation: The EU ambassador in Turkey, Christian Berger declared that in the framework of the deal, 1.500 people have been returned from the Greek islands to Turkey and more than 11.700 people have been resettled to EU countries from Turkey by the end of 2017.