Category Archives: News Digest

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.

Debit-card aid seen insufficient for refugees in Turkey

MB – As many as one million refugees, or one third of those being sheltered across Turkey, will have pre-paid debit cards as part of the European Union’s multi-million-euro aid package. NGOs in Turkey welcomed this project with cautious optimism, arguing it is “insufficient” to cope with the refugees’ social and economic integration into local communities.

21 missing as new migrant boat disaster unfolds in the Aegean

Daily Sabah – During a renewed rise in the crossings of illegal immigrants to Greece from Turkey, a migrant boat disaster on Thursday fueled fears of a return to the period before a EU-Turkey deal to curb the migrant flow when migrant deaths were almost a daily occasion.
The Coast Guard and volunteers are scanning the Aegean Sea for 21 migrants who went missing after their boat traveling to Greece from Turkey’s Bodrum sank on Thursday. Six bodies were recovered from sea in two days of efforts while four others were rescued alive.

Greece sends 70 refugees back to Turkey

ORF.at (link in German) – A vessel from the European border agency Frontex brought 70 refugees from the Greek island Lesvos to the turkish town Dikili. It’s the first big repatriation since the EU deal with Turkey from April.
According to the Greek ministry for citizens protection the refugees were all men, 50 of them from Pakistan and other from Sri Lanka, Algeria and Morocco. They either didn’t apply for Asylum or they Asylum application had been rejected.

Turkey blocks Syrian refugees from resettlement in the US – for having degrees

The Guardian – Turkish officials argue the most vulnerable deserve priority resettlement. Some question whether a degree makes refugees less vulnerable.

More than 1,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey have been blocked from resettlement in the US and other countries because they have university qualifications. The refugees were approved for resettlement by American officials, before being blocked – sometimes just days before their departure date – by the Turkish authorities.