The human cost of the EU’s externalisation of fundamental obligations

More than half of all refugees from Syria is currently located in Turkey. In her latest blog, Tuba Nilüfer Uğur zooms in on the local situation and suggests steps that should be made by the EU to help this matter.

Since March 2011, the Syrian civil war officially began, families have suffered under a brutal conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, torn the nation apart. Because of the civil war, around 12 million people in the country need humanitarian assistance. About 6.7 million Syrians are now refugees, and another 6.2 million people are displaced within Syria. Half of the people affected are children. A large percentage of these displaced Syrians have moved to neighbouring countries and Europe as refugees since the conflict began.

As the Syrian conflict enters its ninth year, Turkey as a neighbouring country continues to host the highest number of refugees worldwide with 3,744,926 Syrian refugees and an estimated number of 400,000 from other countries such as Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.

However, while Turkey, courtesy of the EU-Turkey agreement, maintains an open door policy towards refugees in large part due to EU-funds, questions remain over the country’s capacity not just to host but also integrate and accommodate asylum seekers in a sustainable manner; hosting refugees is much more than just opening the doors, and arrangements and regulations are needed to be made to ensure the proper integration of refugees

Where are most of the Syrians staying in Turkey? What is their impact on Turkish labour market? And how can they help Mr. Erdogan in the election?

You can find answers to all of these questions (and many more) in the full text of the blog, which is available under this link.