HarekAct offers a topical and chronological collection of news on the EU-Turkish border regime under this section. We link to external newspapers and websites and do not hold the copyright.
Views and opinions expressed in the articles published on HarekAct are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of all editorial board members.
Via Open Democracy – Turkey’s military offensive in Afrin is also an example of how refugees are instrumentalized to gain domestic support for foreign policy ambitions.
From integration policies to electoral politics, migration is often discussed as a domestic policy issue. Yet rarely does its possible connection with foreign policy attract attention (see a fewexceptions).
One recent example is Megan Barlow’s latest openDemocracy article where she argues that the Turkish government employs refugees not only as political tools for foreign ambitions, but also for reinforcing a conservative and Islamist ideology. My argument follows the same line of thought by situating Turkey’s instrumentalization of refugees in the context of its co-operation with the EU over migration.
IOM Turkey is training Turkish, Greek and Bulgarian police officers on how to examine travel documents and recognize fakes, in an obvious attempt to improve border controls and to stop increasing border crossings from Turkey in Greece and Bulgaria.
The IOM Integrated Border Management Team was held on the first day of training for police officers from Turkey # Bulgaria and # Greece last week. The training provided guidance on examining travel documents, profiling and commonly used forgery techniques. pic.twitter.com/EFMtHKpEKc
Via Arab News – The governments of Afghanistan and Turkey have agreed on the deportation of Afghans who have been living in Turkey without legal documents for years, Afghan officials told Arab News on Monday.
The island of Ro, which lies just a few miles off the Turkish coast, became the latest flashpoint between the neighbours after months of growing friction and nationalist rhetoric.
The incident, in which Greek soldiers reportedly fired tracer rounds towards the Turkish helicopter, happened late on Monday night.
After the shots were fired, the helicopter, which had buzzed the island at a low altitude, left the area.
Via Gulf Times – Turkey was on Sunday deporting hundreds of Afghan migrants back home on special flights, in a major operation after thousands illegally entered the country in recent weeks.
Via euronews – By Sara Kayyali: At a border crossing between Syria and Turkey, a smuggler preparing a group of seven Syrian asylum seekers to enter Turkey told a 13-year-old boy to cross. He pointed toward the other side of a wide street, and said, ”See there? Run over there, that is Turkey.” The boy ran. Moments later shots rang out and the boy fell dead on the street. The smuggler turned to the rest of the group and told them, ”You can cross now, they will not shoot again.”
[UNHCR]: Returns from Greece to Turkey:The UNHCR’s recent short report reveals interesting results with respect to the refugee/asylum seeker* returns from Greece to Turkey as part of the EU-Turkey Statement:
The number of total returns amounts to 1583 within the last two years. (91%: Men, 5%: Children, 4%: Women)
Around 41 % of these returns are from Afghanistan followed by the Syrians with 17 percent.
“47 % did not express a will to apply for asylum or withdrew their will to apply for asylum or withdrew their asylum claims in Greece.” In other words, they wanted to stay in Turkey or lost their eagerness/hopes to be back in Greece and the EU. [Read the 1-page report]
*: The UNCHR seems to be deliberately avoiding the terms such as refugees, asylum seekers or migrants while mentioning these returned people in its document.
Via Daily News – Nearly 20,000 undocumented Afghan migrants have arrived in Turkey over the past three months, an unprecedented number according to the latest figures from the General Directorate of Security.
A total of 17,847 undocumented Afghan migrants have been captured by security forces from the beginning of 2018 until March 29.
