Turkey’s Failure to Offer Asylum Seekers Full Refugee Status By: Casey Schafer

The Syrian Civil War majorly contributed to the number of refugees fleeing their home countries in search of safety.[1] Many Syrians fled the country with hopes of seeking asylum in safer areas.[2] While Syrians have taken refuge in over 130 countries, Turkey has the largest population of Syrian refugees with over 3.6 million.[3] By June 2014, Syrian refugees had become the third largest refugee group in the world at more than three million.[4]  

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees defines a refugee in its Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.[5] Article I provides the following definition of the term “refugee:”

As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it. In the case of a person who has more than one nationality, the term “the country of his nationality” shall mean each of the countries of which he is a national, and a person shall not be deemed to be lacking the protection of the country of his nationality if, without any valid reason based on well-founded fear, he has not availed himself of the protection of one of the countries of which he is a national.[6]

Additionally, the Convention goes on to say that it applies to “events occurring in Europe before 1 January 1951.”[7] The next section of the Convention’s “refugee” definition states that signatories had the option of applying it to all refugees or just to European refugees.[8] The third provision of Article I provides that “[t]he present Protocol shall be applied by the States Parties hereto without geographic limitation, save that existing declarations made by the States already Parties to the Convention….”[9] The Protocol allowed the Convention signatories who “had chosen the Europe-only option to continue to adhere to that geographic limitation.”[10] This means that Turkey does not have to recognize asylum seekers as refugees in the legal sense if they are not seeking refuge from a European country due to events that occurred before 1951; therefore, Syrian refugees and refugees from other Asian and Middle Eastern countries are not legally considered refugees by Turkey.[11] Without the legal status of “refugee,” Turkey does not owe these asylum seekers rights under the Geneva Convention.[12]

            Turkey grants Syrian and other non-European asylum seekers “temporary protection” rather than full refugee status.[13] Under temporary protection, Syrian refugees must live in the province in which they are registered to attend school and receive health care to have access to these rights.[14] In order to legally find a job, refugees must apply for a work permit, which must be renewed each year and requires six months of residency; however, neighborhoods with a foreign population of 25% or more do not accept residency permit applications from foreigners.[15] Temporary protection also requires Syrian refugees to obtain permission before traveling between provinces.[16] Before applying for citizenship, refugees must have a work residence permit and have resided in Turkey for five years.[17]

Turkey is bound by the Convention, which in Chapter 3, Article 17 states: “The Contracting State shall accord to refugees lawfully staying in their territory the most favourable treatment accorded to nationals of a foreign country in the same circumstances, as regards the right to engage in wage earning employment.”[18] Disregarding its obligation under the convention, Turkey has enacted measures with the goal of making life worse in Turkey than it was in Syria so that Syrians choose to leave on their own.[19] In addition to restricting the number of Syrians that can live in specific neighborhoods, Turkey violated the employment section of the convention by forcing Syrians out of the provinces with better employment opportunities and restricting their access to the formal job market.[20]

Despite the EU’s knowledge of the impending wave of refugees that would seek asylum within Europe, the EU struck a deal with Turkey to stem the flow of refugees into Europe rather than developing plans to provide adequate aid to these refugees according to international law.[21] In March 2016, the EU and Turkey signed a deal in which Turkey agreed to prevent people from leaving its territory for Europe in exchange for $6.6 billion from the EU to “improve the humanitarian situation faced by refugees.”[22] Turkey risks losing the designation of a safe place for refugees as it increases its efforts of forced deportation of Syrian refugees.[23] To help relieve some of the pressure on Turkey, in June 2022 the EU gave Turkey an additional $3.6 billion to be paid out through 2024, intended to be distributed to refugees due to the difficulties they face in earning a living wage.[24] Even though the 2016 deal was intended to be temporary, the EU never came up with a workable migration strategy for refugees to enter Europe.[25]

The EU and Turkey should take a step towards ending the crisis by striking a deal that would create a more long-term solution. One way they could do this would be by the EU predicating additional funding for the asylum seekers currently living in Turkey on Turkey recognizing non-European refugees as protected refugees under the Geneva Convention.[26] This would give refugees living in Turkey all the rights afforded to refugees as opposed to the rights they currently have under their protected status.[27] This would help Turkey keep its designation as a safe third country and possibly help the process of integrating refugees into the Turkish population as many of them have already begun building lives in the country.[28]

[1] Syria Refugee Crisis Explained, USA for UNHCR (Mar. 14, 2023), https://www.unrefugees.org/news/syria-refugee-crisis-explained/#WhendidtheSyrianrefugeecrisisbegin?

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Map of Greece and Turkey in Why Turkey, Greece Remain on Collision Course Over Aegean Islands, https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/6/20/why-turkey-greece-remain-on-collision-course-over-aegean-islands.

[5] Convention and Protocol Relating to the status of Refugees, https://www.unhcr.org/us/sites/en-us/files/legacy-pdf/3b66c2aa10.pdf

[6] Id.

[7] Id.

[8] Alan Makovsky, Turkey’s Refugee Dilemma: Tiptoeing Toward Integration, American Progress (Mar. 13, 2019), https://www.americanprogress.org/article/turkeys-refugee-dilemma/.

[9] Convention, supra note 5.

[10] Makovsky, supra note 8.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] Alice Hickson & Calvin Wilder, Protecting Syrian Refugees in Turkey from Forced Repatriation (May 16, 2023), https://newlinesinstitute.org/displacement-and-migration/protecting-syrian-refugees-in-turkey-from-forced-repatriation/.

[14] Id.

[15] Id.

[16] Id.

[17] Id.

[18] Convention, supra note 5.

[19] Hickson & Wilder, supra note 13.

[20] Hickson & Wilder, supra note 13.

[21] Paul Hockenos, Europe’s Morality Is Dying at the Greek Border (Mar. 5, 2020), https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/05/refugees-turkey-europes-morality-is-dying-at-the-greek-border/.

[22] Explained: The Situation at Greece’s Borders, Amnesty International (Mar. 5, 2020), https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/03/greece-turkey-refugees-explainer/; Hickson, supra note 27.

[23] Hickson & Wilder, supra note 13.

[24] Hickson & Wilder, supra note 13.

[25] Hockenos, supra note 21.

[26] Makovsky, supra note 8.

[27] Makovsky, supra note 8.

[28] Makovsky, supra note 8.