Flashback on The Migration Crisis: Recap on The Migration Crisis in The Aegean Sea
By Federico Fo, 7 minutes.
The migration crisis has been one of the main challenges faced by Europe in the last decade. Such a crisis has brought millions of people fleeing from war and situations of extreme poverty, to cross the Mediterranean Sea for a dangerous journey, to reach the far more safe and rich European Union. Since it began, the migration crisis has been a great source of political and social tensions within both EU and non-EU countries, bringing to the making of debates regarding its management. Many plans and decisions have been taken until now to stop the crisis. However, the actual effects of these decisions are still largely unexplored, especially if we consider the influence that the crisis had until now regarding the changes in the balance of power between countries. Consequently, it is of importance to explore the actions undertaken until now by the countries for which the migration crisis is of great concern.
Notwithstanding its huge scale, the migration crisis is localised just in certain areas of the Mediterranean Sea, through which pass the main migration routes used by migrants. Each one of these areas has its own characteristics regarding methods and strategies used to tackle the migratory flows. Among all of these regions of migration, it is important to explore the migratory route present in the Aegean Sea, since it is one of the most important if not the most important migratory route, where more than one million people have crossed the sea over the years. Indeed, just in 2015, it has been recorded that more than 800.000 migrants have made use of this route. The two main actors interested in the migration flows in this area are Turkey and Greece. With the former, that is a point of departure to get to the latter, considered the “gate to Europe”. Both Greece and Turkey have taken decisions of great importance to tackle the migration crisis in the region, this article aims to explore the nature and effect of such decisions.
Work by Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa); Basis for 2015 EU-Turkey joint action plan. Syrian asylum applications highest among all nationalities between 1 January and 30 June 2015; Date of creation: from original 2019-07-26, then retrieved on 2018-08-31; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ ; no changes made.
Firstly, it is important to describe how the migration crisis in the Aegean Sea has begun. Turkey has always been part of migratory routes, though it became one of the main routes just with the Syrian civil war in 2011. The latter caused millions of Syrians to flee their houses to get to Turkey, which since the beginning of the conflict showed itself ready to welcome Syrian refugees. Nevertheless, most of them aimed to get to Europe, bringing to a sudden considerable increase of irregular departures from Turkey to Greece, and from Greece to the rest of Europe. With Greece that was unprepared to take care of the migrants having already problems with tackling its own economic recession, being thus overwhelmed by the migratory flows.
Work by Ggia; Syrian and Iraqi refugees arrive from Turkey to Skala Sykamias, Lesbos islands, Greece. Volunteers (life rescue team- with yellow-red clothes) from the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms help the refugees. Date of creation: 30 October 2015; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ; no changes made.
The uncontrolled increasing number of refugees helped in the shaping of anti-migration feelings among European citizens, which at last obliged the European Union to act. Indeed in 2016, the European Union itself got involved in the crisis in the Aegean Sea, signing a deal with Turkey with the aim of stopping the migratory flows. This latter deal is known as the EU-Turkey deal and it consisted of three main points: 1) Turkey would take any measure to stop people traveling from Turkey to the Greek islands; 2) everyone who came to Greece from Turkey irregularly, would have been relocated to Turkey; 3) for every Syrian who returned from Greece, EU member States would accept a Syrian refugee who waited within Turkey. In exchange Turkey would have received 6 billion euros to sustain the humanitarian situation of refugees within the country; and the granting to Turkish citizens of VISA-free travel to Europe. Moreover, Europe also promised to re-take into consideration Turkey’s application to the EU.
At last, the deal has worked just to a certain extent. Indeed, the European Union could have deemed itself satisfied with the results, since the number of departures from Turkey significantly decreased. Differently, Greece, could define itself just as partially satisfied since many of the irregular migrants who settled themselves in Greek territory have not been returned to Turkey yet because of factors that hindered such actions. For example, Greek judges have in many cases stopped the relocation of migrants, declaring Turkey as a non-safe country for them; or again there have been cases of non-cooperation by Turkish authorities which refused to take back the migrants, blocking these in a sort of legal limbo where they cannot stay in Greece but at the same time cannot get back to Turkey too. Lastly, Turkey expressed great dissatisfaction regarding the deal. Despite Europe stating that all the 6 billion euros to take care of the Syrian refugees have been allocated to Turkey, yet the latter was still disappointed by the methods of payment, since most of this money was given to refugee-serving organisations rather than government accounts. Moreover, the European Union has not fully respected the reallocation of Syrian refugees in EU countries, since a very low number of Syrian refugees are being relocated to Europe.
All these factors contributed to the decision of Turkey to stop fulfilling its obligations, pushing the migrants towards Greece. In fact in March 2020 Turkey, following a strike against Turkish forces in Syria where 33 soldiers died, decided to open the gates of migration, encouraging thousands of migrants to cross the Greek border. Turkey in many cases even transported migrants close to the Greek-Turkish border of Evros. Turkey’s actions reflected its wish to get more concessions from Europe. Particularly, when referring to its wish to take European support in the Syrian conflict. Thus, Turkey requested support, such as a no-fly zone in Syria during NATO meetings, with such a request strongly opposed by many NATO members. The dispute was at last solved, with Europe strongly supporting Greece, putting political pressures on Turkey, bringing the latter to back off with its actions and requests. But as a consequence of this, Turkish authorities became less and less cooperative with the Greek authorities regarding the respect of the EU-Turkey deal. Indeed no migrants since 2020 were reallocated from Greece to Turkey, though it is important to point out that it is not clear whether this is rather related to the outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic during that period.
Work by Charismaniac; Refugees waiting at the Pazarkule, Greek-Turkish border; Date of creation: 8 March 2020; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ; no changes made.
Nevertheless, since the beginning of 2023, it looks like the relations between Greece and Turkey have started to improve. More specifically, after a positive meeting for a NATO summit in Vilnius among the two countries, there is hope for a new positive era of international relations between Greece and Turkey. The foreign affairs ministers of both Greece and Turkey have promised to provide reciprocal further coordination to tackle problems of joint interest. Such coordination was particularly seen during 2023, when a higher commitment was recorded by the Turkish side to stop migration flows, with an increase in arrests of smugglers and migrants. These actions by Turkey have re-opened the idea of extending the EU-Turkey deal, which would probably be supported by both the Greek and EU side. These negotiations are still uncertain at the moment, though there is great positivity in the air as provided by the statement of both Greek and Turkish officials, who are supposed to meet in December 2023 to discuss the extension of the deal.
