Killing of Syrian civilians raises more concerns about the safety of refugees in Turkey
Today, on World Refugee Day, there’s extra effort to raise awareness about the people who flee their homes because of war and persecution. But today there’s also sad news as reports come in from observers who say Turkish border patrol agents shot and killed as many as 11 Syrian civilians trying to enter Turkey.
What a lot of people don’t understand is that refugees have a legal right to claim asylum in a foreign country if their own country can’t protect them. Moreover, it’s against international law to send them back.
This is something Turkey does all the time with groups of refugees from Afghanistan and Syria.
Amnesty International has previously documented how Turkish authorities have been violating international law, for instance by forcibly returning groups of Afghan and Syrian refugees since the EU-Turkey deal was struck. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have published accounts of Syrian asylum-seekers being beaten and shot at by Turkish security forces.
— Amnesty International
According to Amnesty International and courts in Greece, that’s one of the reasons the European Union’s deal to return refugees to Turkey is actually illegal. The E.U. doesn’t really care because helping refugees isn’t politically popular anymore.
“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.”
— Amnesty International
After Sunday’s killings, there could be more pressure on Turkey to improve its asylum system. Learn more and see heartbreaking (and also disturbing and graphic) footage of the victims here:
