Ankara The top representative of the European Union in Turkey warns of a humanitarian emergency in Afghanistan. “We expect a difficult situation for the autumn,” said the German diplomat Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut the Handelsblatt. He called for quick help for the local people in order to avoid a new wave of refugees from Syria like in 2015.
The statements of the EU ambassador encourage the assumption that there is a threat of a wave of refugees in autumn that could reach Europe. This threatens political chaos and a shift to the right like in 2015, when hundreds of thousands of Syrians fled to Europe.
Politicians and diplomats, the impression arises, are avoiding scare tactics with their words. Words like “solidarity” and “burden sharing” are used again and again, and the good cooperation between Brussels and Ankara is often emphasized. But when it comes to the details, differences, demands and disappointments dominate the other side.
In other words, if half a million people could soon leave Afghanistan, as forecast by the United Nations, then Turkey will have a problem first – and then Europe.
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“The number of arrivals in Turkey is increasing every day”, said the Turkish EU Minister Faruk Kaymakci on Wednesday evening in the context of a discussion of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation on the subject of migration in the Turkish capital Ankara in front of diplomats. He announced that he would not accept any new migrants. “We are not the refugee camp for the rest of the world.”
Turkey has already taken in 300,000 Afghan refugees
The advance of the Taliban has already led thousands of Afghans to seek refuge in neighboring countries. Many of them make a long journey through Iran to Turkey and beyond.
Turkey has taken in 3.7 million Syrian refugees and around 300,000 Afghan refugees, making it the largest host country for refugees in the world. According to official figures, 650,000 Syrian refugee children have been born in Turkey since 2015 alone. 1.2 million young people from the country go to school or university in Turkey – without paying for it.
In view of this open stance, the government of President Erdogan is coming under increasing political pressure. The difficult economic situation in the country made many Turks jealous of the refugees, who are allowed to visit doctors and schools for free. “Every Turk has already paid an average of US $ 5,000 in taxes just for the refugees,” complained migration expert Hüseyin Bagci from Odtü University in Ankara.
The opposition has taken up the issue and, with some xenophobic comments, is raising the mood against the migrants. “If we take over the government, we will send the refugees back to their homeland within two years with trumpets and applause,” announced opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the republican CHP. “We will solve the problem,” he promises.
Erdogan warns of a refugee crisis like 2015
The Turkish government is already pressing for the return of Syrian refugees to their home country. Turkey is working with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu on Sunday. “We are now getting more support from the international community for the safer return and repatriation of refugees.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose poll numbers are steadily falling, underlined that Turkey is not in a position to take care of additional refugees. To increase the pressure on Brussels, he also recalled the events six years ago when hundreds of thousands of Syrians traveled to Europe, mostly unregistered.
“Nobody wants to have a similar experience to the Syrian refugee wave of 2015,” said Erdogan. At that time, Turkey had taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria, many of whom were crossing over to Greek islands in boats in order to travel from there to richer EU countries such as Germany.
The following year, the EU and Turkey signed a migration agreement that is intended to limit the influx of migrants to Europe. In return, the EU promised Turkey financial aid and travel facilities for Turkish citizens as part of the “Refugee Pact”. The agreement only affects Syrian refugees in Turkey. Migrants from other countries are excluded from the program.
The EU wants to extend the so-called refugee pact with Turkey and provide another three billion euros for it, said EU Ambassador Meyer-Landrut. It is an “increasing reality” that more and more Afghans live in Turkey, explained Meyer-Landrut.
The technocrats in Brussels are currently working on a plan to be presented in October. “And then of course we will also have to talk to Turkey about where and how these funds can best be used.”
Refugee Pact: Turkey makes demands on the EU
However, that should not be enough for the Turkish EU Minister Kaymakci. He stressed what Turkey has already done while the EU has not kept its agreements.
Kaymakci explains, for example, that the promised money for the refugees has been invested in projects, but the entire sum has not yet been paid out. “Thanks to our help, the number of arrivals in the EU via Turkey has fallen by 95 percent,” emphasizes Kaymakci. Official statistics confirm this.
There are also no visa facilitations for Turks yet. “Nobody talks anymore about the fact that the refugee pact is a package with many other components.” Kaymakci wants to change that and announced a catalog of demands before Turkey and the EU discuss a new cooperation on the refugee issue in October.
This includes a new edition of the customs union between the EU and Turkey as well as stronger cooperation in so-called “source countries”, i.e. the migrants’ countries of origin. “We must work together to combat the causes of flight in the countries of origin such as Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and also in transit countries,” demands Kaymakci.
In addition, he called on Greece in particular not to push back refugees in the Aegean Sea. Turkey had reached its limit and could not accept any new people – an indirect indication that the country would no longer necessarily stop travelers onward.
“People die instantly when they do pushbacks at sea,” says Kaymakci. The question arises, however, who is responsible for everything: Turkey, which lets people flee across the sea, or Greece, which sometimes vigorously rejects the people at their sea border.
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