The Limits of an International Burden-sharing Approach: The Syrian Refugee Protection Crisis and Its Consequences on Turkey’s Refugee Policy

Abstract

This article analyses the consequences of the Syrian refugee protection crisis on the development of an effective international burden-sharing approach. It argues that despite the proven necessity of developing effective burden-sharing mechanisms at the EU and international levels, the Syrian refugee protection crisis has shown that limited progress has been achieved both at the international and the regional levels. This article brings these discussions under a systematic framework to show how the Syrian refugee crisis can provide an opportunity and also a challenge for the development of an effective and durable international burdensharing approach. The primary objective of this research is to review Turkey’s experience with the Syrian refugees. The lack of commitment for international burden-sharing puts refugee-receiving countries under immense financial, political and social pressures, which have direct consequences on the humanitarian assistance that refugees can receive. Taking one such refugee hosting country, Turkey, as an example, this research investigates responses given to refugee protection at an international level

Keywords

• Syrian Refugee Protection Crisis, Syrian War, Refugees, Burden-Sharing, Turkey and Refugees, Refugee Policy

References

1. This article does not utilize the common usage of the term the “Syrian refugee crisis”. Asylum seekers or refugees themselves did not cause the crisis in 2015. I argue that the crisis was a direct result of the inability or ineffectiveness of the states to provide international protection to persons in need of protection. This research therefore adopts the term “refugee protection crisis”.
2. In some literature, the concept “responsibility sharing” is used instead of “burden- sharing”. UNHCR is also adopting the usage of “responsibility sharing.” However, the 1951 Geneva Convention frames this concept as “burden-sharing” and this article utilizes the original form of this concept adopted from the 1951 Convention. 3 UN
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