Turkey Suspends Readmission Agreement

In 2002, a readmission protocol between Greece and Turkey was signed to combat illegal immigration. “We have a migrant agreement with the EU. It is being implemented. We have a bilateral readmission agreement with Greece. We have now suspended that agreement. The process is not yet complete, but our work towards Greece will continue,” Avusolu told reporters in Antalya. The legal framework for the return declaration was the bilateral readmission protocol concluded in 2002 between Turkey and Greece. (5) However, the parties have not completed the legal procedure to advance the implementation, until 1 June 2016, of the provisions of the readmission agreement between the European Union and Turkey concerning the readmission of third-country nationals, which dates back to 2014. This omission has made the protocol between Greece and Turkey the only legal basis for the implementation of the readmission provisions contained in the EU-Turkey declaration.

Although the agreement provides for the entry into force of the provisions on third-country nationals by 1 October 2017, the European Commission indicated in its 2018 report on Turkey that Turkey had not implemented the agreement, citing the fact that the EU had not taken the necessary steps for visa liberalisation. (6) However, the Commission`s aforementioned report also noted a deterioration in the implementation of the protocol between Turkey and Greece. (7) The Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevl`t Éavuéolu, also stated that this protocol, which constitutes the legal basis for the implementation of readmissions on the basis of the declaration, has been suspended. (8) On 22 July 2019, Turkey announced that it had suspended the readmission agreement due to the non-completion of the EU visa liberalisation procedure for Turkish citizens. (9) Although it is not certain that Euvuolu referred to the formal suspension of the 2014 readmission agreement or the suspension of the 2016 declaration, this statement should be interpreted as a sign that Turkey does not intend to be bound by an agreement to readmission third-country nationals from the European Union. On the other hand, it should be noted that readmissions on the basis of the EU-Turkey declaration continued after the first announcement of the suspension of the Greece-Turkey protocol, as evidenced by several sources, including the 2018 European Commission report on Turkey, the “migration statistics” published by the Directorate General for Migration Management and field studies. (10) (11) In the meantime, several points have been raised both on the number of people who have been repatriated to Turkey and about the number of people who have been re-abducted by the EU under the 1:1 system. According to statistics from the Directorate General for Migration Management, a total of 22,729 Syrians have been resettled in different European countries since 25 July 2019 under the 1:1 programme. (12) According to the statement of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), based on Greek sources, the number of migrants returning to Turkey as of 31 March 2019 was 1843. (13) Three hundred and forty-four of these persons were Syrian nationals. According to UNHCR, 45% of returnees have not expressed a willingness to apply for asylum or have withdrawn their asylum applications in Greece. According to Turkish sources, the number of people readmitted by Turkey was 1891, including 357 Syrian nationals.

However, the Directorate General for Migration Management has not yet published information on whether these persons had applied for international protection or had been registered under the temporary protection regime.