The European Union is more divided on the asylum issue than ever before
The refugee agreement between Turkey and Europe is at a crossroads 5 years after it was signed
Mevlut Cavusoglu: Turkey hopes that the current "positive atmosphere" with the European Union will push Brussels to fulfill its pledges.
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Immigration is a card Turkey uses to put permanent pressure on Europe.
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During the month of September of 2015, the image of the little Syrian child, “Alan Kurdi,” washed up to the coast of Turkey, caused a shock wave around the world.
Six months later, the leaders of Turkey and the European Union signed a refugee agreement, under which Ankara would receive political and financial aid in exchange for dealing with illegal immigrants seeking to enter the countries of the Union.
The agreement has already reduced the number of migrants arriving in Europe, and Turkey has received the bulk of the 6 billion euros ($ 7.15 billion) allocated by the European Union in aid to Ankara under the agreement.
Despite this, Brussels did not fulfill its promises to relax the conditions for granting entry visas to Turks and expand the customs union between Turkey and the European Union.
Today, after five years, the agreement is facing failure, as Turkey is struggling in the face of the increasing numbers of immigrants arriving to it, and the European Union is divided over the issue of asylum, more than ever.
Imposition
The immigration authorities in Turkey say that the country hosts about six million refugees, of whom about four million are from Syria.
This number increases by two million compared to 2016, which is a heavy burden on Turkey, which received about 60,000 asylum seekers in 2011, before the outbreak of the civil war in Syria.
The refugee agreement between Ankara and Brussels nearly collapsed last year, when thousands of illegal immigrants, most of them from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, gathered on the borders between Turkey and Greece, as Ankara opened the borders to those seeking to enter Europe, fearing the influx of more Syrians fleeing the Syrian province of Idlib. To the country.
But the border crisis has stopped due to the outbreak of the new Corona virus.
More funding
The agreement now needs more funding, and to extend to other groups of immigrants in Turkey, according to Sinim Adar, a researcher at the Center for Applied Turkey Studies at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
Adar said that future programs in this regard should also support the integration processes, as most Syrians are likely to prefer to stay in Turkey.
Meanwhile, nearly two million illegal refugees represent a source of grave concern in Turkey, as most of them have settled in the country, according to Murat Erdogan, director of the Immigration Research Center at the German-Turkish University in Istanbul.
Erdoan explained that many of these may be trying to reach Europe, rather than facing the risk of deportation in Turkey.
Gerald Kunooz of the European Stability Initiative says that the immigration agreement between Turkey and the European Union will fail if it cannot be modernized or another agreement reached instead.
In a webinar organized by the Istanbul-based Immigration Research Association, Kunooz said that the European Union should increase aid to migrants in Turkey, and start receiving more of them.
If this does not happen, then it is possible that Ankara will be tempted to allow migrants to cross its European borders, and use that as a bargaining chip, says Murat Erdogan.
Tighten the screws
Last week, an official said that the European Union expects Turkey at the same time to tighten the screws on people smugglers, and to allow migrants from the Greek islands to return to its territory.
Both sides have stopped during the pandemic, but while the European Union has begun resettlement, Turkey has not started receiving any returning migrants.
Ankara still hopes to cancel entry visas to Europe for the Turks, and to modernize the customs union with the European Union, which says that Turkey's anti-terrorism laws, which are shrouded in obscurity, are used to violate rights and target critics.
Finally, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that his country hopes that the current "positive atmosphere" with the European Union will push Brussels to fulfill its pledges, according to what was reported by the Turkish Anadolu news agency.
Researcher Sinim Adar said that linking these promises to the immigration agreement was a miscalculation by the European Union in the first place, which intensified the "blame game."
Despite this, Adar says that the agreement, although not perfect, has led to more interdependence between Turkey and the European Union, and that its modernization is in the interest of both parties.
- Ankara still hopes to cancel entry visas to Europe for the Turks, and to modernize the customs union with the European Union, which says that Turkey's anti-terrorism laws, which are shrouded in ambiguity, are used to violate rights and target critics.
- The image of the little Syrian child, “Alan Kurdi,” washed up to the coast of Turkey, caused a shock wave around the world.
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