Brussels, 20/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 20 June, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) called upon the European Union to stop sending Syrian refugees back to Turkey, stressing the lack of access to employment, education and healthcare, which are exacerbating the cycle of poverty and exploitation, the NGO state in a press release.
The delays in registering Syrian refugees and in the limited implementation of temporary protection policies in Turkey are depriving many of them of the effective protection, access to employment and services they desperately need, the NGO stresses. As long as Turkey has to deal with a very high number of refugees without being able to adequately ensure the protection and safety of all of them, the European Union should not be sending Syrian refugees back to the country.
HRW argues that the notion of “safe third country” or “first country of asylum”, which are applied to Turkey under the agreement of 18 March negotiated with the European leaders, does not just cover protection from wars or persecution; it also means that a refugee has rights in line with the Refugee Convention, including the right to work, healthcare and education. However, HRW stresses the laws and policies governing the lives of Syrian refugees in Turkey do not grant them full refugee rights and the protections these laws and policies do extend have yet to be fully realised.
The NGO also reiterates that Turkey has been accused on many occasions of carrying out pushbacks of refugees on the Syrian border. Turkish border guards were even accused over the weekend of firing on Syrian refugees, leaving eight dead, which Ankara has denied. On Monday 20 June, the European Commission stated that it was aware of the information in the press and that it had faith that Turkey would establish the “truth” regarding the events reported in the press.
20 June, incidentally was World Refugee Day, on which 65 million people throughout the world were displaced by force from their country of origin. On this day, the European Commission stressed that it had tripled its resources for search and rescue operations at sea, thereby helping to save 240,000 people in the Mediterranean. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)