Via The Conversation – Liza Schuster critically writes about her experiences during a flight from Istanbul to Kabul where she spoke to some of the thirty men being deported or “voluntarily returned” to Afghanistan. It was their second deportation after having been sent back to Turkey from the EU as part of the EU-Turkey deal. The article addresses not only the particular cruelty of deporting people to a war-torn country – it also shows the absence of the IOM that was supposed to support the arriving refugees:

Continue reading As violence sweeps Kabul, the rapid pace of deportations from Europe continues →

The conversations that figure in this text took place in October 2015 during a 18-months field research that extended from June 2014 to April 2016.

“Look! All the paths are closed!” Hanan says pointing at the drawings the coffee left in her cup. “There is no opening… This is not a good sign!” she continues while turning the small white coffee cup in her hands. It is early morning, Hanan and I are the only ones awake in the flat. The children are still asleep on the floor of the living room, where we are sitting drinking our morning coffee, and reading our future. Hanan has been obsessed with coffee reading for the last couple of weeks as she is looking for signs and answers about her future. Will she stay in Turkey? Will she go back to her parents’ village in Syria? Or will she cross to Europe? In this morning cup, rather than giving a possible direction, the coffee just shows that the future is dark and with no much hope. Continue reading Hope, Resilience and Uncertainty: A Day with Displaced Syrians in Southern Turkey →

The conversations that figure in this text took place in the summer and autumn 2015 during a 18-months field research that extended from June 2014 to April 2016.

What does loss mean for Syrians living in Southern Turkey in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution and in the midst of an ongoing war? How is this loss experienced, and how does it affect Syrians’ everyday in Turkey? Those are some of the questions I looked at during my PhD’s fieldwork (June 2014 – April 2016) among Syrians in the city of (Gazi)Antep. The loss experienced by Syrians can be defined as polymorphic. It is before all the loss of Syria: the loss of one’s home and homeland. The loss was also recounted as the loss of one’s past, one’s former life, the loss of relatives, of kinship ties and networks. Yet, Syrians’ loss is also the loss of a political project, of their revolution and the subsequent loss of one’s revolutionary self. Continue reading Loss and everyday life on the Syrian-Turkish border →

Written by David Lagarde, published in Anthology Hypotheses 15th February – This field report is part of a project of doctoral research into the networks and dynamics of Syrian exile to Jordan. This research is based on longitudinal monitoring of an ordinary group of refugees from Deir Mqaren – a village in the Rif Dimashq Governorate – and its aim is to analyze and understand the population’s “diasporization” process. Another of its objectives is to show how cross-border trade circulation initiated by the men of Deir Mqaren during the Ottoman era has influenced the migratory paths taken by all the families of the village since 2011. Continue reading Syrian refugees’ journey from Jordan to Germany →

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.

Médecins Sans Frontières – One year after the EU-Turkey Deal, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) released a report to expose the human costs of European policy failures in Greece and the Balkans. MSF calls on the EU and member state leaders to radically change their approach to migration and ensure a swift end to the unnecessary suffering of the thousands caught in the consequences of the EU-Turkey deal.

Continue reading One year after the EU-Turkey deal: New MSF report →

Forced Migration Review – Jill Alpes and Sevda Tunaboylu published a short articles on the deportations from Greece to Turkey since the EU-Turkey deal: “People who return to Turkey under the EU-Turkey deal are detained and many risk onward deportation without access to legal aid and international protection.”

Read the whole article here.

Amnesty International published a new report on the consequences of the infamous EU-Turkey deal, dealing in particular with arbitrary detentions, the humanitarian and legal situation for refugees stranded on the Greek islands as well as with the deportations back to Turkey.

Human Rights Watch published their annual report on the worldwide human rights situation. The chapter on Turkey contains a paragraph on refugees and migrants:

“Turkey continued to host large numbers of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants, primarily from Syria, but also from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries. The number of asylum seekers transiting to Greece fell after the March EU-Turkey migration deal (see European Union chapter). Despite increased aid and some efforts by authorities, most refugees and asylum seekers lack effective protection, education, or formal employment, with high rates of child labor and a particularly precarious situation for non-Syrians. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian children are still not attending school. A January decree allowing some Syrians to apply for work permits has had little effect to date.

Turkey’s border gates and entire land border with Syria remain closed although people seriously injured in fighting are admitted to Turkey for medical treatment. Syrian refugees attempting to cross into Turkey at unofficial crossing points are summarily pushed back into Syria and some asylum seekers and smugglers attempting the crossing have been shot dead or beaten by Turkish border guards.”

Associazione per gli Studi Giuridici sull’Immigrazione – Between June 15th and 19th 2016, a team of around forty people (lawyers, legal advisors and mediators), coordinated by A.S.G.I. , visited six different areas in Greece 3 , aiming at carrying out a juridical observation of what is happening in the country, following the Declaration signed March 17th and 18th , 2016 5 by the heads of state and the Government of the European Union and Turkey, and known as the “EU-Turkey statement”.

The legal position of the asylum seekers on the land is different from that of the ones “stuck” on the islands. The two geographical positions imply the application of different norms and practices.
Basically, those who arrived in Greece after March 20th , 2016, are the ones that are mainly affected by the agreement dated March 18th , 2016 (inadmissibility procedures and risk of re-admittance to
Turkey) and live on the islands (some in custody) by virtue of a government expulsion ban. The other ones, who reached Greece before March 20th , 2016, live on the remaining part of the Greek territory.