Turkey is doing the dirty work of Europe’s immigration control

The EU mini-summit held in Brussels on the 29 November 2015 agreed a deal to keep more refugees in Turkey and out of the EU. What does this mean for those already in Turkey, now excluded from the EU's protection?

By using Turkey as purely a convenient bulwark against a unwanted refugees, the EU is cynically playing into the Turkish governments internal politics which keep migrants disenfranchised and controlled. As elsewhere, migrants in Turkey are useful as vulnerable scapegoats who provide the state with a cheap work force but who have no call on state resources. The EU’s policy in relation to Turkey is short-sighted and cynical and surely motivated more by a desire to find an ally to hold back the human product of global insecurity than by finding a humanitarian solution to human needs.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: The EU and Turkey: Tactical moves, or a golden opportunity? http://www.europeansources.info/record/the-eu-and-turkey-tactical-moves-or-a-golden-opportunity/

ESO: Background Information: International Summit: Meeting of the EU heads of state or government with Turkey, Brussels, 29 November 2015 http://www.europeansources.info/record/international-summit-meeting-of-the-eu-heads-of-state-or-government-with-turkey-brussels-29-november-2015/

ESO: Background information: Turkey and refugee rights: the missing link http://www.europeansources.info/record/turkey-and-refugee-rights-the-missing-link/

ESO: Information Guide: European Migration Challenges http://www.europeansources.info/record/information-guide-european-migration-challenges/

Carnegie Europe: Strategic Europe, 27.01.16: Judy Asks: Will Turkey Help Europe on Refugees? http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=62596

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