Amnesty: The EU must immediately halt plans to return asylum-seekers to Turkey on the false pretence that it is a “safe country” for refugees‏

report:
https://www.amnesty.nl/sites/default/files/public/embargoed_turkey_briefing_31may20161.pdf

No safe refuge: Asylum-seekers and refugees denied effective protection
in Turkey
https://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/no-safe-refuge-asylum-seekers-and-refugees-denied-effective-protection-in-turkey

The European Union (EU) must immediately halt plans to return
asylum-seekers to Turkey on the false pretence that it is a “safe
country” for refugees, said Amnesty International in a briefing
published today.

The briefing, No safe refuge: Asylum-seekers and refugees denied
effective protection in Turkey, details the shortcomings in Turkey’s
asylum system and the hardships refugees face there that would render
their return under the EU-Turkey Agreement of March 18 illegal – and
unconscionable.

The briefing shows that Turkey’s asylum system is struggling to cope
with more than three million asylum-seekers and refugees. As a result,
asylum-seekers face years waiting for their cases to be dealt with,
during which time they receive little or no support to find shelter and
sustenance for themselves and their families, with children as young as
nine working to support families.

“The EU-Turkey deal is reckless and illegal. Amnesty International’s
findings expose as a fiction the idea that Turkey is able to respect the
rights and meet the needs of over three million asylum-seekers and
refugees,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Director for
Europe and Central Asia.

“In its relentless efforts to prevent irregular arrivals to Europe, the
EU has wilfully misrepresented what is actually happening on the ground
in Turkey. It is to be expected that a new asylum system, in a country
hosting the largest number of refugees in the world, would struggle.
While there is value in supporting and encouraging Turkey to develop a
fully functioning asylum system, the EU cannot act as if it already exists.”

Turkey failing to protect refugees

Despite its broadly welcoming attitude towards refugees, the large
numbers of people – about 2.75 million Syrian refugees and 400,000
asylum-seekers and refugees from other countries (primarily Afghanistan,
Iraq and Iran) – have inevitably placed a considerable strain both on
Turkey’s new asylum system and its capacity to meet people’s basic needs.

The report shows how the Turkish asylum system fails three crucial tests
required under international law for the return of asylum seekers to
Turkey to be lawful: status, durable solutions and subsistence.

1. Status

Turkey lacks the capacity to process asylum applications, meaning that
hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers and refugees languish in legal
limbo for years at a time. The Turkish authorities have refused to
provide Amnesty International with asylum statistics. In April, however,
they reported having processed around 4,000 applications, or 1.5 percent
of the 266,000 applications registered with the UN Refugee Agency, in
2015.

2. Durable Solutions

Refugees should either be integrated in the country, resettled to
another country or, if safe, repatriated to their country of origin.
However, Turkey denies full refugee status, and with it integration, to
all non-European refugees, while the international community is failing
to provide anywhere close to sufficient resettlement options/places.
This leaves refugees in a double-bind, where they cannot build a new
life in Turkey but they have little hope of being offered the option to
resettle to another country in the coming years, if at all.

Faiza, (whose name has been changed) and her sister, both Afghans, fled
forced marriages in Iran and were recognized as refugees in Turkey. For
three years, they waited in vain for an interview at a resettlement
country’s embassy. In the end they did not see any option but to risk
their lives in a smuggler’s boat to Greece.

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