Paper short abstract:

This paper argues that the rights of Syrian refugees hosted by Turkey are not sufficiently protected under Turkish immigration law, and that the EU can therefore not rely on Turkey in the management of the present refugee crisis.

Paper long abstract:

Since the outbreak of civil war in Syria in 2012, 2.5 Syrians have fled to Turkey. Whereas at first they were welcomed as 'brothers', now their presence is conceived as problematic. They mostly live outside the refugee camps, depending on social assistance and income from illicit work to make the ends meet. Extreme hardship is the result. The Turkish (asylum system created by the) 2014 Immigration Law does not constitute a functional legal framework to sufficiently provide for protection of the Syrian refugees, and many if not all dream of a future elsewhere, if possible in (western) Europe.

Until now, the reflex of the EU has been to grant only a small number of refugees asylum, while at the same time to look for (legal) ways to send most of them back over the EU border, or preferably to keep them outside EU territory in the first place. Turkey plays an important role in the EU's refugee crisis management plans, and has shown to be willing to play this role, in exchange for money and promises of visa-free travel and other rights. However, both partners in the EU-Turkey deals on refugees seem to ignore the fact that from the onset it has been clear that Turkey is already unable to provide for a protection regime that lives up to international and European standards, let alone manage the influx of even more (returned) refugees.

This paper critically analyses EU and Turkish reflexes to the mass influx of Syrian refugees.