On Its Eighth Anniversary: The EU-Turkey Deal - From Externalization to Digitalization

Yıl 2024, Cilt: 4 Sayı: 1, 44 - 65, 15.05.2024

Ayşem Biriz Karaçay

Öz

The article provides a critical review of the EU-Turkey deal on its eighth anniversary. Despite initial success in reducing irregular migration, the deal’s shortcomings have led to a resurgence in arrivals and challenges in its implementation. Criticisms focus on the violation of international law and human rights. Moreover, the article shows how the deal reinforces externalization and digitalization policies in migration management, while raising concerns about accountability, transparency, and discrimination. Although digital technologies offer new tools for border control, their deployment has sparked ethical and legal debates regarding their impact on migrants’ rights. Overall, the article argues for a re-evaluation of migration policies, emphasizing the importance of a rights-based approach and genuine collaboration to address the complex challenges posed by displacement, detention, externalization and digitalization.

Anahtar Kelimeler

The EU-Turkey Deal, externalization, digitalization, the EU, Turkey

Kaynakça

• Augustova, K., Ilbiz, E., & Carrapico, H. (2024). Complex harms of migration externalisation: EU policy ‘creep’ processes into domestic counterterrorism at the Turkey-Iran border. Journal of Interational Relations and Develeopment, 27, 25–45. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-023-00319-w.
• Ataç, I., Heck, G., Hess, S., Kaşlı, Z., Ratfisch, P., Soykan, C., & Yılmaz, B. (2017). Contested B/Orders. Turkey’s changing migration regime. An Introduction. Journal for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies, 3(2), 9–21.
• Aydin-Düzgit, S, Keyman, E. F., & Kristen B. (2019). Changing Parameters of Migration Cooperation: beyond The EU-Turkey Deal? Istanbul: Istanbul Policy Center/Sabanci University.
• Baban, F., Ilcan, S. & Rygiel, K. (2017). Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Pathways to Precarity, Differential Inclusion, and Negotiated Citizenship Rights. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 43(1), 41-57.
• Baban, F., Ilcan, S. and Rygiel, K. (2021). The Precarious Lives of Syrians: Migration, Citizenship, and Temporary Protection in Turkey. McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal.
• Bal, S. (2023). Reappraising the EU-Turkey refugee statement within the human rights and neoliberalism nexus, Journal of European Integration, 45(7), 1035-1053, doi: 10.1080/07036337.2023.2243539
• Bialasiewicz, L. & Maessen. E. (2018). Scaling rights: The ‘Turkey Deal’ and the divided geographies of european responsibility, Patterns of Prejudice, 52(2–3), 210–30.
• Biehl, K. (2009). Migration ‘Securitization’ and its Everyday Implications: An Examination of Turkish Asylum Policy and Practice, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), European University Institute: Florance,.
• Boedeltje, F., & Van Houtum, H. (2011). Introduction to a special section and Brussels is speaking: The Adverse speech geo-politics of the European Union towards its neighbours. Geopolitics, 16(1), 121–145.
• Broeders, D. (2007). The new digital borders of Europe: EU databases and the surveillance of irregular migrants, International Sociology 22 (1), 71–92.
• Casaglia, A. & Pacciardi, A. (2023). A close look at the EU–Turkey deal: The language of border externalisation, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 40(8), 1659-1676. https://doi.org/10.1177/23996544221100149
• Cobarrubias, S. (2020). Scale in motion? Rethinking scalar production and border externalization. Political Geography, 80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
• Cobarrubias, S., Cuttitta, M., Casas-Cort’es P., Lemberg-Pedersen, M., El Qadim, N., & Hine, S., İşleyen, B., Guisa, C., & Heller, C., (2023). Interventions on the concept of externalisation in migration and border studies. Political Geography, 105(3), 102911 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2023.102911
• Crisp, J. (2022). Externalisation and the Erosion of Refugee Protection. Comparative Network on Refugee Externalisation Policies, https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/4264143/CONREPBlogCompendium-Final.pdf
• Cuttitta, P. (2015). Territorial and non-territorial: The mobile borders of migration controls. In A. L. Amilhat Szary, & F. Giraut (Eds.), Borderities and The Politics of Contemporary Mobile Borders (pp. 241–255). Basingstoke: Palgrave-McMillan.
• Danış, D. (2021). The fifth year of the EU-Turkey statement, Istanbul: GAR.
• Danış, D., & Dikmen, H. (2022). Türkiye’de göçmen ve mülteci entegrasyonu: Politikalar, uygulamalar ve zorluklar. İstanbul Ticaret Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi Türkiye’nin Göç Siyaseti Özel Sayısı, 21(Özel Sayı), 24-45.
• Demirbaş, E. & Miliou, C. (2024). Looking at the EU-Turkey Deal: The Implications for Migrants in Greece and Turkey. In Migrations in the Mediterranean, R. Zapata Barrero & İ. Awad (eds.), Springer, Open Access, pp.11-28.
• Eder, M., & Özkul, D. (2016). Editors’ Introduction: precarious lives and Syrian Refugees in Turkey, New Perspectives on Turkey, 54 (54), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1017/npt.2016.5 .
• El Qadim, N., İşleyen, B., Ansems de Vries, L., Hansen, S. S., Karadağ, S., Lisle, D., & Simonneau, D. (2021). (Im) moral Borders in Practice. Geopolitics, 26(5), 1608–1638. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2020.1747902
• Erdoğan, M. & Pütmann, F. (2023). The EU-Turkey deal is based on a fundamental misunderstanding, SüdeuropeMittelungen, 2, 76-84.
• European Commission, (2016a) Communication on the second report on the progress made in the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/ HTML/?uri=CELEX:52016DC0349&from=EN
• European Commission (2016b), Turkey Report 2016, https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/ document/download/e703a769-bf7f-46d1-8a13-6a836683e838_en?filename=20161109_report_turkey. pdf
• European Commission (2018), Turkey Report 2018, https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/document/ download/446c8261-6297-4300-86c1-bd3fc143731e_en?filename=20180417-turkey-report.pdf
• European Commission (2019), Turkey Report 2019, https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/system/ files/2019-05/20190529-turkey-report.pd
• European Commission (2020a), Turkey Report 2020, https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/ document/download/f4b4f445-6f09-4130-95bc-04b1df4e8f46_en?filename=turkey_report_2020.pdf
• European Commission (2020b). New Pact on Migration and Asylum: Questions & Answers, https://ec.europa.eu/ commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_20_1707
• European Commission (2021), Turkey Report 2021, https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/turkiyereport-2021_en
• European Commission (2022), Turkey Report 2022, https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/turkiyereport-2022_en
• European Commission (2023), Turkey Report 2023, https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/turkiyereport-2023_en European Commission (2024). Pact on Migration and Asylum: A Common EU System to manage Migration, (https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/migration-and-asylum/pact-migration-and-asylum_en.)
• European Court of Auditors, (2024). Special Report 06/2024: The Facility for Refugees in Turkey, https://www. eca.europa.eu/ECAPublications/SR-2024-06/SR-2024-06_EN.pdf
• Frelick, B., Kysel, I. M. & Podkul, J. (2016). The Impact of Externalization of Migration Controls on the Rights of Asylum seekers and Other Migrants, Journal of Migration and Human Security, 4 (4), 190–220.
• Follis, K. (2017). Vision and transterritory: The borders of Europe. Science, Technology & Human Values, 42(6). 6, 1003–1030.
• Frontex, (2017). Annual risk analysis 2017, https://www.frontex.europa.eu/assets/Publications/Risk_Analysis/ Annual_Risk_Analysis_2017.pdf
• Frontex, (2018). Annual risk analysis 2018, https://www.frontex.europa.eu/assets/Publications/Risk_Analysis/ Risk_Analysis/Risk_Analysis_for_2018.pdf Frontex (2019) Annual risk analysis 2019, https://www.frontex. europa.eu/
• Frontex, (2020). Annual risk analysis 2020, https://www.frontex.europa.eu/publications/risk-analysis-for-2020- vp0TZ7
• Frontex, (2023). Risk analysis for 2023-2024, https://www.frontex.europa.eu/assets/Publications/Risk_ Analysis/Risk_Analysis/ARA_2023.pdf
• Frontex, (2024a). Migratory Routes Eastern Mediterranean Route, https://www.frontex.europa.eu/what-we-do/ monitoring-and-risk-analysis/migratory-routes/eastern-mediterranean-route/
• Frontex, (2024b). News: Significant rise in irregular border crossings in 2023, highest since 2016, https:// reliefweb.int/report/world/frontex-significant-rise-irregular-border-crossings-2023-highest-2016
• Frowd, P. M. (2020). Producing the ‘transit’ migration state: International security intervention in Niger, Third World Quarterly, 41 (2), 340–358. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2019.1660633
• GAR, (2022). Araştırma Raporu 8 - Suriye’den Göçün 10. Yılında Sivil Toplum: Aktörler, Süreçler ve Öngörüler, https://gocarastirmalaridernegi.org/attachments/article/289/Suriye%E2%80%99den%20 G%C3%B6%C3%A7%C3%BCn%2010.%20Y%C4%B1l%C4%B1nda%20Sivil%20Toplum.pdf (Erişim tarihi: 21 Şubat 2023)
• GAR (2024). AB - Türkiye Mutabakatının 8. Yılında GAR Tespit ve Önerileri https://www.gocarastirmalaridernegi. org/tr/duyurular/380-ab-turkiye-mutabakatinin-8-yilinda-gar-tespit-ve-onerileri.
• Gazzotti, L., Mouthaan, M., & Natter, K. (2023). Embracing complexity in ‘Southern’ migration governance. Territory, Politics, Governance. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 21622671.2022.2039277
• Giaccaria, P., & Minca, C. (2011). The Mediterranean alternative, Progress in Human Geography, 35(3), 345–365.
• Gürkan, S., & Coman, R. (2021). The EU– Turkey deal in the 2015 ‘Refugee Crisis’: When Intergovernmentalism cast a shadow on the EU’s normative power, Acta Politica, 56, 276–305.
• Human Rights Watch, (2020). World Report: Events of 2019, Acces date: June 13, 2020, https://www.hrw.org/ world-report/2020/country-chapters/european-union.
• Isakjee, A., Davies, T., Obradovic-Wochnik, J., & Augustova, K., (2020) Liberal violence and the racial borders of the European Union, Antipode, 52(6), 1751–1773.
• İçduygu, A. & Aksel, D. (2014) Two-to-Tango in migration diplomacy: Negotiating readmission agreement between the EU and Turkey. European Journal of Migration and Law, 16(3), 337-363.
• İçduygu, A., & Üstübici, A. (2014). Negotiating mobility, debating borders: Migration diplomacy in Turkey-EU relations. In H. Schwenken, S. Russ, & S. Ruβ-Sattar (Eds.), New border and citizenship politics, (pp. 44– 59). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Karadağ, S. (2019) Extraterritoriality of European borders to Turkey: an implementation perspective of counteractive strategies. Comparative Migration Studies 7(12), 1-16 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-019- 0113-y
• Karadağ, S. & İ. Bahar. (2022). Ending Up in a Cul-de-Sac?: Critical Junctures in the EU-Turkey “Deal” on Its Sixth Anniversary, Istanbul Policy Center.
• Kaya, A. (2020). Migration as a Leverage Tool in International Relations: Turkey as a Case Study. Uluslararası İlişkiler / International Relations, 17(68), 21–39.
• Kaya, A. (2021). Europeanization and de-Europeanization of Turkish Asylum and Migration Policies. In EU-Turkey Relations, W. Reiners, E. Turhan, (eds.), (347-372), Palgrave Macmillan.
• Kaya, A. (2022). AB-Türkiye Mutabakatı: Tampon Ülke, TÜSİAD TÜSİAD Küresel Siyaset Forumu Makale Dizisi No-2, https://tusiad.org/tr/yayinlar/raporlar/item/10937-tusi-ad-kuresel-siyaset-forumu-makale-dizisino-2-ab-turkiye-multeci-mutabakati-tampon-ulke Kaya, A., Rottman, S., Gökalp Aras, E., & Şahin Mencütek, Z. (2021). Reception and Integration of Syrian Refugees in Turkey. Uppsala: RESPOND.
• Koca, B. T. (2022). Bordering processes through the use of technology: The Turkish case. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(8), 1909–1926. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1796272.
• Lavenex, S., & Schimmelfennig, F. (2009). EU rules beyond EU borders: Theorizing external governance in European politics. Journal of European Public Policy, 16(6), 791–812.
• Lemberg-Pedersen M (2013) 7 Private Security Companies and the European Borderscapes. In The Migration Industry and the Commercialization of International Migration, T. Gammeltoft-Hansen,& N.N. Sorensen (eds.) (152–172), Palgrave: London
• Lemberg Pedersen, M. (2019). Manufacturing displacement. Externalization and postcoloniality in European migration control, Global Affairs, 5(3), 247–271
• Lemberg Pedersen, M., & Haioty, E. H. M. (2020). Reassembling the surveillable refugee body in the era of datacraving. Citizenship Studies, 24(5), 607-624. Lorey, I. (2015). State of insecurity: Government of the precarious. Verso
• Marin, L. (2011). Is Europe turning into a ‘Technological Fortress’? Innovation and Technology for the Management of EU’s External Borders: Reflections on FRONTEX and EUROSUR.” In Regulating Technological Innovation: A Mutlidisciplinary Approach, M. A. Heldeweg and E. Kica (eds.), (pp.131–151) Palgrave Macmillan: London. Moisio, S., & Paasi, A. (2013). Beyond state-centricity: Geopolitics of changing state spaces, Geopolitics, 18(2), 255–266.
• Mitrović, S. M. & Vilenica, A. (2019) Enforcing and disrupting circular movement in an EU Borderscape: Housingscaping in Serbia. Citizenship Studies, 23(6), 540–58.
• Nedelcu, M., & Soysüren, İ. (2022). Precarious migrants, migration regimes and digital Technologies: The empowerment-control nexus, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(8), 1821-1837.
• Özçürümez, S., Şenses, N. (2011). Europeanization and Turkey: Studying irregular migration policy, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 13(2), 233–248. 10.1080/19448953.2011.578867
• Paçacı-Elitok, S. (2019). Three Years On: An Evaluation of the EU-Turkey Refugee Deal.” MiRekoc Working Papers, 4(8), 1–18.
• Pallister Wilkins, P. (2015). The humanitarian politics of European border policing: Frontex and border police in evros, International Political Sociology, 9(1), 53–69.
• Panebianco, S. (2020) The EU and migration in the Mediterranean: EU borders’ control by proxy, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(6), 1398–1416.
• Pries, L & Savcı, Z. B. (2023) Between humanitarian assistance and externalizing of EU borders: The EU-Turkey deal and refugee related organizations in Turkey, Journal on Migration and Human Security, 1(1), 57–74, doi: 10.1177/2331502423115638.
• Rescueorg, (2022, 18 March) What is the EU-Turkey Deal? https://www.rescue.org/eu/article/what-eu-turkey-deal Rescue.org (2024) The EU-Turkey Statement: Six years of undermining refugee protection, https://www.rescue. org/sites/default/files/2022-03/EU%20Turkey%206%20years.pdf
• Schimmelfennig, F. (2021). Rebordering Europe: External boundaries and integration in the European Union, Journal of European Public Policy, 28(3), 311–330.
• Stock, I., Üstübici, A. & Schultz, S.U., (2019). Externalization at work: responses to migration policies from the Global South. CMS, 7, 48. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-019-0157-z
• Statewatch, (2024). Migration Pact “will engender a proliferation of human rights violations” and must be rejected, https://www.statewatch.org/news/2024/april/migration-pact-will-engender-a-proliferation-ofhuman-rights-violations-and-must-be-rejected/
• Strik, T. (2019). Migration deals and Responsibility sharing: Can the two go together? In Constitutionalising the External Dimensions of EU Migration Policies in Times of Crisis: Legality, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights Reconsidered, S.Carrera, J. S. Vara, & T. Strik (Eds.),. Edward Elgar Publishing
• Swan, E. (2023). EU migration policy: Analyzing the coercive responses of transit countries within the EU’s framework of externalization. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4541019 or http://dx.doi. org/10.2139/ssrn.4541019
• Tazzioli, M., & Walters, W. (2016). The Sight of Migration: Governmentality, Visibility and Europe’s Contested Borders. Global Society, 30(3): 445–464. 10.1080/13600826.2016.1173018
• Türkeş, M. (2017). a deal between EU and Turkey on matters of the refugee, readmission and visa liberalisation. The Journal of Research Institute for the History of Global Arms Transfer, (3), 31–39
• Trakilović, M. (2020). On this path to Europe- the symbolic role of the ‘Balkan corridor’ in the European migration
• debate, In Buikema, Rosemarie, Buyse, Anotine and Robben, Antonius C.G. (Eds). Cultures, Citizenship and Human Rights, 49–63. Routledge
• UNHCR, (2015). Over one million sea arrivals reach Europe in 2015, https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/overone-million-sea-arrivals-reach-europe-2015
• UNHCR (2016) Europe’s Refugee Emergency Response Update #27, https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/ details/49412
• UNHCR (2024). Situation Syria Regional Refugee Response,https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/Syria
• Üstübici, A. (2019). The impact of externalized migration governance on Turkey: Technocratic migration governance and the production of differentiated legal status, Comparative Migration Studies, 7(46), 1–18.
• Washington Post, (2024) Auditors say it’s hard to tell how Turkey is using EU refugee funds. Some officials aren’t helpful, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/23/eu-turkey-migrants-deal-educationauditors/55727126-01bd-11ef-8eac-39c6dcb59eb5_story.html
• Woolrych, K. (2024). The EU pact on migration and asylum, explained, https://hias.org/news/eu-pact-migrationand-asylum-explained/