EU-Turkey Refugee Deal: Buck-Passing and Bargaining on Human Lives at Risk?

Year 2020, Volume: 19 Issue: 1, 276 - 293, 25.03.2020

Melina Duarte

https://doi.org/10.20981/kaygi.705300

Abstract

Since the early stages, the EU-Turkey Refugee Deal has generated several controversies concerning its legal and moral standing. In the first section of this paper, for important informative purposes, I will briefly discuss several points related to how the legality of the deal could be contested. In the second section, I will turn my attention to a more detailed examination of whether the deal could be considered immoral with regard to two morally condemned practices, namely: buck-passing, or evasion of responsibility, and bargaining on human lives at risk. In the final section, I will attempt to outline guiding principles for a hypothetical deal that would be more responsive to the principles underpinning the Refugee Convention than the morally condemnable principles in the actual deal based on those two grounds discussed here.

Keywords

Refugee Crisis, Relocation, Human Rights, International Relations, State’s Responsibilities

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