Via HurriyetDailyNews – Eleven migrants were killed on March 24 after a boat carrying 22 sank off the Kuşadası-Davutlar area of western Turkey, Doğan News Agency has reported. Seven migrants were rescued while efforts to rescue the other missing four are continuing.
Read the full article here.
Via LBC Europe – Five children were among 11 Syrians killed after their plastic boat sank off Turkey’s Aegean coast on Friday, the Dogan news agency said, the first such reported incident in months on an illegal migrant route meant to have been all but shut down.
Read the full article here.
Via New York Times – Patrick Kingsley reports on the State of Emergency in Turkey and how people are dealing with hard times in a nation strained by war, terrorist insurgencies, a refugee crisis and a widening crackdown on dissent. This article is about two Syrians: a former smuggler and a child-labourer.
Read the full article here.
Via Era-Aegean (Translated from Greek) – On Monday evening, the Greek coast guards were engaged in an operation to search and rescue three refugees who allegedly tried to swim from the Turkish shores to the island of Chios. The rescue operation took place close to the island Paspargos and Karfas. A helicopter was involved but the rescue operation remained without success. The three people could not be found.
The Greek authorities informed the Turkish Coast Guards regarding the three refugees, so that the latter proceeds to similar operations in the Turkish territorial waters.
via Keep talking Greece – More migrants and refugees crossed to Turkey: In last five days, a total of 566 people arrived to the Greek islands on boat coming from Turkey. Most of them arrived on the islands of Lesvos, Chios and Samos.
Read the full article here.
Deutschlandfunk (Link in German) – More refugees than usual arrived on the islands in the Eastern Aegean during the last two days.
According to authorities in charge 360 people crossed from the Turkish mainland to the Greek islands.
Read the German article here.
Yahoo – Bulgaria said Saturday it was ready to boost patrols and finish a fence along its southeastern frontier with Turkey in an effort to hold off any new influx of migrants. The pledge comes as Turkey is in separate rows with Bulgaria and the EU, raising worries Ankara could allow a rush of asylum seekers across the border.
Read the full article here.
Today is the first anniversary of the signature of the EU-Turkey statement, commonly known as the EU-Turkey Deal, which aimed at stopping the arrival of asylum seekers and migrants in the EU. It was signed on 18th March 2016 as an answer to the “long summer of migration”1 in 2015, when thousands of people made use of their human right to freedom of movement and crossed from Turkey to Greece in order to continue further into Europe. The deal aims at reducing the number of migrants and refugees reaching Europe in return for certain promises to Turkey: visa-free travel for Turkish citizens, financial aid for the reception of deported migrants and accelerated EU membership talks. Continue reading HarekAct Statement: One year after the EU-Turkey Deal
ECRE op-ed by Cavidan Soykan on year after the EU-Turkey Deal. She is a member of Mülteci-Der and an independent researcher working on the Turkish asylum system
This week marks the anniversary of the controversial EU–Turkey Statement of 18 March 2016. The Statement placed responsibility for halting irregular crossings and deaths in the Aegean Sea in the hands of two countries: Greece and Turkey.
The Statement is a prime example of externalization policy, an attempt to harden the borders of the EU against unwanted migration through readmission agreements and prevention of access to asylum in Europe. However, the fear generated in Greece and Turkey that their territory would become a buffer zone for asylum seekers and refugees who failed to reach other European countries has led them to imitate the same restrictive strategies. Continue reading The EU – Turkey Deal One Year On: The Rise of Walls of Shame
Oxfam -In a new report “The reality of the EU-Turkey statement: How Greece has become a testing ground for policies that erode protection for refugees”the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and Oxfam showcase how vulnerable people are forced to live in degrading conditions, and it outlines the many ways in which asylum seekers are barred from exercising their right to a fair asylum process.
Read the full press release here.