Tag Archives: Syrians

News Digest

Raw Deal

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What happened to the billions that Brussels pledged to Turkey to keep refugees out of the EU

Via The Black Sea – By Craig Shaw, Zeynep Şentek & Şebnem Arsu.

The ending of Europe’s refugee crisis was built on a legally dubious, three billion Euro deal between the EU and Turkey in 2016

With the recent announcement of a further three billion Euro pledged for Turkey, the existing deal is not as successful as the EU publicly states: NGOs have been harassed and fined, there is little public accountability on how money is spent, and many infrastructure projects are only just beginning

Meanwhile, despite requesting to extend the agreement, Turkey is already crafting a “counter narrative” to send refugees back to Syria.

A ‘Billions for Borders’ report for EIC Network, with additional reporting by John Hansen (Politiken), Emilie Ekeberg (Danwatch), Margherita Bettoni (The Black Sea), Hanneke Chin-A-Fo (NRC) Francesca Sironi (L’Espresso). Continue reading Raw Deal →

News Digest

Syrian refugees turning to sex work being driven to the edge of society in Turkey

Via Ahval News (from 27th April) – Having escaped the brutal seven-year civil war in their homeland, many Syrian refugees face poverty and discrimination in Turkey. Some have turned to sex work, but have then been driven further into the periphery of society and have little access to justice in response to violence and exploitation, said a report by the Red Umbrella Sexual Health and Human Rights Association, a Turkish non-governmental organisation Continue reading Syrian refugees turning to sex work being driven to the edge of society in Turkey →

News Digest

Syrian refugees say Turkish border guards shooting at them

Via Ahval News – Abdulkarim Khalaf opened his eyes on last month to find himself lying in a hospital bed in the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn, near the border with Turkey. When the 18-year-old tried to ask about his two cousins, nobody in the room could understand the sounds he was making, distorted by the many wounds to his face and body.

Khalaf and his two cousins, 22-year-olds Hameed Sahlan and Zayed al-Moghaireth, from a village close to the border successfully scaled the wall Turkey erected along the frontier to keep out refugees, but immediately ran into Turkish border guards.

Continue reading Syrian refugees say Turkish border guards shooting at them →

HarekAct Reporting

Counter-Narrative to the ‘European Dream’ – Syrian Refugees Stay in Turkey

By Garib Mirza – Garib Mirza is a freelance researcher, whose studies focus on the ongoing conflict in Syria and recently on the Syrian refugees. He has worked for independent Syrian research centers and think tanks.

The European Dream

‘It’s Europe!’ a Syrian youth responded when a France 24 reporter asked him in 2014 why he and others set out on the arduous path to Europe. ‘It’s Europe!’ seems enough of an answer to the question and perhaps it is the best expression of many refugees’ and asylum seekers’ ‘European Dream’.

Continue reading Counter-Narrative to the ‘European Dream’ – Syrian Refugees Stay in Turkey →

Monitoring the EU-Turkey Deal, News Digest

Re-thinking EU-Turkey co-operation over migration

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 few exceptions).

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.

Continue reading Re-thinking EU-Turkey co-operation over migration →

News Digest

Syrian refugees in Turkey face calls to return as public mood changes

Syrian refugees in Turkey face calls to return as public mood changes. For years, most Turks courteously accepted the Syrians fleeing to their country. But attitudes towards refugees appear to be hardening, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has hinted the solution could lie in Afrin, the Kurdish enclave in northwestern Syria his troops have just occupied.

Via IRIN – There is talk of infrastructure being rebuilt in Afrin, of voluntary returns, of perhaps 350,000 to 500,000 Syrians being encouraged to go back. But few refugees in Turkey are from Afrin, and it’s unlikely many would want to return to an active war zone, especially if they’re not Kurdish or from that region. Surveys indicate that even if the fighting ends, half of the estimated 3.8 million Syrians (3.4 million registered and up to 400,000 unregistered) in Turkey intend to stay. Continue reading Syrian refugees in Turkey face calls to return as public mood changes →

News Digest

With Turkey’s offensive into Afrin, Erdogan is seeking to kill two birds with one stone

Via Deutsche Welle (from 2nd March) – Turkey’s offensive on Afrin will oust the “terrorist menace” and will ensure the return of Syrian refugees – that’s been the message of President Erdogan. He’s catering to his voters, says DW’s Dorian Jones in Istanbul.

“We are not in a position to continue hosting 3.5 million refugees forever. We’ll solve the Afrin situation … and we would like our refugee brothers and sisters to return to their own country,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared earlier this month, speaking to provincial leaders at his presidential palace.

This was a remarkable turnaround for Erdogan and his government.

Since the start of the Syrian civil war, Turkey has pursued an open-door policy for those fleeing the conflict. “We regard you as our brothers and sisters … Turkey is also your homeland,” Erdogan told refugees at the Syrian border during Ramadan 2016 — even offering them Turkish nationality if they wanted it.

Continue reading With Turkey’s offensive into Afrin, Erdogan is seeking to kill two birds with one stone →

News Digest, Other Resources

Turkey: Mass Deportations of Syrians

EU Should Raise Issue, Pledge Aid at Conference

Via Human Rights Watch – (Brussels) – Turkish security forces have routinely intercepted hundreds, and at times thousands, of asylum seekers at the Turkey-Syria border since at least December 2017 and summarily deported them to the war-ravaged Idlib governorate in Syria, Human Rights Watch said today. Turkish border guards have shot at asylum seekers trying to enter Turkey using smuggling routes, killing and wounding them, and have deported to Idlib newly arrived Syrians in the Turkish town of Antakya, 30 kilometers from the Syrian border.The Russian-Syrian military alliance’s December offensive against anti-government forces in Idlib has displaced almost 400,000 civilians, according to the UN. They have joined more than 1.3 million others trapped inside Idlib in insecure, overcrowded camps, and in makeshift camps in fields near the closed Turkish border where they are under constant threat of attack and lack food, clean water, shelter, health care, and aid. At a March 26, 2018 summit meeting in Bulgaria, the European Union should press Turkey to allow Syrian civilians fleeing fighting to seek protection inside Turkey and pledge increased aid to Syrian refugees in Turkey and the region.

A Turkish soldier surveys the border line between Turkey and Syria near the city of Kilis, March 2, 2017.

A Turkish soldier surveys the border line between Turkey and Syria near the city of Kilis, March 2, 2017.

© 2017 Reuters/Murad Sezer

Continue reading Turkey: Mass Deportations of Syrians →

News Digest

“More than 300 000 ‘stateless’ Syrian babies born in Turkey should be granted citizenship immediately”

Via Refugee News Turkey – Some 311,000 babies of Syrian origin have been born in Turkey under the stateless status, according to the Turkish Parliament’s Refugee Subcommittee that operates under the Human Rights Committee.

The subcommittee’s president Atay Uslu said the situation is a “humanitarian plight.” Continue reading “More than 300 000 ‘stateless’ Syrian babies born in Turkey should be granted citizenship immediately” →

Reporting on the Turkish-EU Border Regime