Via Al-Monitor – Turkey is rightly commended for hosting over 3 million Syrian refugees fleeing the nearly seven-year-old conflict that continues to wrack their country in new and ghastly iterations. Acts of overt aggression against the “guests,” as Turkey formally labels them, are astonishingly rare. But a new report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) published this week raises alarm bells over their future. Continue reading Hostility toward Syrians could explode in Turkey, ICG warns
Monthly Archives: January 2018
The Myth of Voluntary Deportations – “Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration” from Greece
The number of people who agree to “voluntary” return from Greece to their country of origin with the programme of “Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration” of the “International Organization for Migration” (IOM) is significantly higher than the number of deportations to Turkey since the EU-Turkey statement.
What happens to migrants who sign up for the IOM return programme during the process and after the return to their home countries? Why do asylum seekers agree to leave Europe again?
The observation of several cases reveals that many migrants face detention and serious physical and mental harm during and after their participation in the programme of “Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration”.
Turkey’s Syrian Refugees: Defusing Metropolitan Tensions
The International Crisis Group published a new report on intercommunal violence between Turkish host communities and Syrian refugees in Turkey’s three largest cities: Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
Click here to read the whole report as PDF Continue reading Turkey’s Syrian Refugees: Defusing Metropolitan Tensions
Evros river: ‘Forced pushback’ of refugees at the edge of EU
Via AlJazeera – Refugees trying to enter Greece through its northern land border with Turkey have told Al Jazeera they have been threatened and forced to go back, illegal under international humanitarian law.
Report to the Turkish Parliament: A lost generation of Syrian ‘haymatlos’ children
Via Hürriyet (link in Turkish) – The Refugee Rights Commission of the Turkish Parliament explains that since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, 276.000 Syrian babies born in Turkey stay in an ‚haymatlos‘[1] status and thus face a risky future with neither Turkish nor Syrian identification papers. By the end of September 2017, the number of Syrian babies born in Turkey was at 276.158 and the details of the report are as follows.
Continue reading Report to the Turkish Parliament: A lost generation of Syrian ‘haymatlos’ children
International policy consultation process has been launched
Via MireKoc– The Turkish Refugee Council, IGAM, and Oxfam has launched an international policy consultation process to ensure that the views and perspectives of those most affected by forced migration across international borders are driving the development of international policy on refugees. You can start engaging in this process by filling out a short survey via the following links:
English: http://bit.ly/2kGl2nO
Arabic: http://bit.ly/2jbRrSA
French: http://bit.ly/2AV56oI
Turkish: http://bit.ly/2Bahwx6
Rare look at life inside Lesbos’ Moria refugee camp
Via AlJazeera – Images capture living conditions the Greek island’s largest camp, home to thousands of refugees and migrants
Turkey hosts largest refugee population in world
Via Hürriyet Daily News– Turkey has the largest refugee population in the world, according to a two-year study conducted by the Turkish Parliament’s Refugee Subcommittee that operates under the Human Rights Committee.
Turkey currently hosts approximately 4.3 million refugees, the report said.
Of the millions taking refuge in Turkey, 3.4 million reside in the country under Turkey’s temporary protection.
The remaining 600,000 refugees have residence permits, the report showed.
Continue reading Turkey hosts largest refugee population in world
‘Musaferat’ on the last month on the prison island Lesvos
Musaferat – a collective active on Lesvos against the deportation practise – published an insightful summary of the events during the last month on Lesvos. From the unbearable living conditions in Moria, iltreatment of minor refugees, deportations and ‘voluntary returns’ and policy violence against protests.
Continue reading ‘Musaferat’ on the last month on the prison island Lesvos
A new wave of immigrants from Idlib to Turkey
Via euronews (Link in Turkish) – Due to intense bombardment by the Syrian army backed by Iranian and Russian forces in the Syrian cities Hama and Idlib against ISIS, tens of thousands of people abandoned their houses and reached the Turkish border since November 2017.