By: Maha Attique
Following nearly a decade of instability in Syria, Turkey currently hosts nearly 3.6 million registered Syrian refugees that fled the war that plagues the region. As of May 2017, more than 22 refugee camps have been set up in 10 Turkish provinces, with the largest refugee population in the province of Şanlıurfa in southeastern Turkey. However, a vast population of refugees lives outside of camps, struggling to survive in an alien environment. Living expenses and lack of access to a fixed, regular income makes it difficult for families to afford life outside of these camps. This hopelessness drives them to resort to negative coping mechanisms such as child labor or street begging, while many families reduce their food consumption or live in substandard conditions.
Turkey has made admirable efforts to provide registered refugees with access to basic rights and services, including education and healthcare. The Turkish government has given permission to refugees to work and has given them opportunities to integrate themselves into Turkish communities, rather than relegating them to camps, as seen in most European countries. The provision of healthcare and education to migrants, including Turkish language lessons, best proves Turkey's efforts in rehabilitating and dealing with the crisis as humanely as possible. However, the welfare of such a large population eventually led to an immense burden on the country’s resources, instilling resentment in Turkish citizens for the displaced Syrians.
To help Turkey cope with the economic strain, as well as preventing a large influx of refugees in Europe, the European Union signed a deal with Turkey in 2016. The deal was a statement of cooperation between EU states and the Turkish government to control the crossing of refugees and migrants, particularly Syrians, to Europe via Turkey, and was initially intended to control the large numbers of refugees risking their lives to migrate to Europe in 2015. The clauses included funding from the European Union and independent funds from European countries to aid Turkey in dealing with the refugee crisis. All illegal migrants traveling to Greece were to be handed over to Turkish authorities, and in exchange, European countries involved in the deal were to resettle registered asylum seekers. The EU also promised to expedite negotiations for Turkey's accession to the EU and visa-free travel for Turkish citizens throughout EU states.
Over the past four years, Turkey has received approximately €6 billion in EU financial assistance to pay for the living expenses of the Syrian refugees. However, the EU has yet to fully honor all the clauses of the 2016 agreement. Despite the financial assistance from Brussels, Greece is prolonging the processing of refugee applications to seek asylum in the country, with the delay time ranging from a few months to several years. This goes against the clause of settling registered refugees in exchange for the hand over illegal migrants. Presently, tens of thousands of refugees are stranded in detention facilities in the Eastern Greek islands, living in conditions that are deteriorating exponentially as the number of refugees exceeds the capacity of the camps. Several complaints from the Turkish government accuse the EU of not paying the €6 billion sum in full and delaying the accession negotiations, while the EU claims to have paid the full amount to refugee aid organizations, rather than the Turkish state.
The EU-Turkey agreement faced its biggest trial in the first quarter of 2020 when Turkish forces in the Idlib province of Syria faced a deadly escalation of violence in the region. After 33 Turkish soldiers lost their lives during a particularly deadly airstrike conducted in February by the Syrian Government, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to open the Greek-Turkish land border if the EU did not assist Turkey in Syria. The prospect of another influx of refugees in Turkey, due to fighting in the Idlib province, was an incentive for the Turkish government to open the border with Greece, going as far as providing state-funded transport to take refugees from the camps to the border. This act of desperation from the Turkish government brought international criticism upon the President for weaponizing, and potentially endangering, the asylum-seekers, amidst a time that marked the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. With Greece and Bulgaria closing their borders, the refugees found themselves stranded midway, without knowing what to do.
This border crisis is a test of both the EU's unity and its strategic capacity to act diplomatically in the area. The responsibility of almost a million people suffering in Idlib as well as those stranded in detention facilities, should not fall upon Turkey alone, considering Turkey's efforts in preventing a surge of refugees in Europe. Rather than just financial compensation, the EU should further their efforts in resettling registered refugees across Europe, as was planned in the 2016 agreement. If the world expects Turkey to bear the repercussions of the Syrian civil war on their own, then the very least they can do is make meaningful contributions to assist Turkey in ensuring that the refugees are given adequate support without adversely affecting the Turkish economy and the lives of Turkish citizens.
(Image from here.)
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