According to the United Nation’s (UN) recently published report that includes data of the beginning of the year 2015, the number of forcibly displaced people has reached its highest number ever; 60 million. 1 out of 122 people in the world is forcibly displaced! Ongoing wars and conflicts in countries such as Syria, Yemen, Libya increase this number day by day.
This year the number of the refugees who could manage to reach Europe through Greek Islands and the Balkans is only 1 million. It seems a lot but It’s a very inadequate number for such a big tragedy. Wars and government violence force 4600 people to leave their homes on a daily basis in all around the world. In the beginning of this year, number of refugees reached its highest number, 20,2 million with the effect of Syrian war. It is estimated that the number will rise up to 34 million at the end of this year. Unfortunately, European Union (EU) never has kept its promises bout refugees: EU has promised about relocating 22.000 people from the UN camps to Europe this year. However, until now only 600 people were relocated to Europe. Closing the borders to the refugees, signing an agreement for returning them back to Turkey means ignoring the problem and bearing no responsibility.
EU is sending back the refugees who reached Greece from Turkey. At the end of the month 3000, at the end of this year 20.000 refugees will be returned to Turkey. So called illegal (economical) 
migrants are being sent back… The reason there is so much dispute in European public opinion about refugees and migrants is the assumption that we do not have any special obligations towards migrants, but we have special obligations towards refugees! International law gives protection to refugees and not migrants in all over the world. But, these categories are inadequate in dealing with realities! In essence, ‘refugees’ and ‘migrants’ are categories that are defined by institutions with power and are used for political purposes and not for the sake of helping the people. International law tells us to observe this distinction. But if somebody is, for example, in Iraq, or in Aphganistan, or in Libya or in Nigeria and you cannot find a job because of your religon or etnicity ( Sunni or Shia, a Kurd or an Alawite) or his/her home, business is being bombed – no one is actually threatening his/her life, but he/she is in a position of destitution, he/she has no future. What is he/she then, a refugee or an economic migrant? Such a separation hinders the prospects of securing refugee solutions. An artificial separation between ‘refugee’ and ‘migrant’ removes the humanitarian perspective for states to admit the needy in all. Thus, this clearly aims only to restrict migration. The whole strategy of Europe builds on this artificial/fancy distinction between refugee and migrant. Under the name of human rights perspective paves the way of stopping people to enter Europe.
Let it be clear: Besides from the military interventions in the Middle East, economical-political understanding called “the West and the Rest” is the main reason of the chaos and the violence in Middle East and Africa and Asia… Neoliberalism has seriously boosted inequality between the North and the South and caused more fragile social structures in global South. A big number of people from all around the world especially from war regions are looking for a new life because of desperate structural problems. The main reason of the migration movements in the world today, actually are global economical powers, political pressures, economical marginalisation, discrimination and ugly face of globalisation. Globalisation, that makes money and goods transcend all the borders, do not give opportunity for the oppressed, refugees and migrants. Europe criminalises refugees and militaries borders while renting countries as a open air prisons for these people such as Turkey.
People in Africa and the Middle East can not succeed in solving their own problems and changing their societies for a better economipolitical system, better life. Because, the West, the ‘’the establishment’’ is not allowing them to improve their societies in their way. It was the Western intervention in Libya that threw the country into chaos with three goverment fihting each other. It was the US military attack on Iraq that created the conditions for the rise of Islamic State. The ongoing civil war in the Central African Republic between the Christian south and the Muslim north is not just an explosion of ethnic hatred, it was triggered by the discovery of oil in the north: France and China are fighting for the control of resources through their proxies. The Syrian uprising has followed a range of uprisings in the Arab world. We witnessed the process of the uprising that turned into a proxy war with sectarian overtones. The People of Syria was not defeated in Syria and eventually forced into exodus. Rather, the Peo- ple of Syria was defeated in Washington, Moscow, Paris, Riyad, Ankara, Doha etc. ; in the competitive nature of the international system. The regime in Syria is guilty of quelling the uprising in a violent way and killing its own people, however the countries that consciously support militarisation and sectarianisation of the conflict are to be held responsible too. All of the countries that are militarily active in the region bear responsibility in one way or another. We can easily increase examples… It is necessary to understand that the first reason for the current refugee crisis lies in the fact that the current turbulent, violent and unstable context in Africa and the Middle East has brought together migrants and refugees from different origins, all seeking a better life in Europe. Exodus of thousands of people from Middle East, Asia and Africa to the Europe is described as “Refugee Crisis”. Identifying the situation as a crisis is an obstacle before a calm analyses and a rationalist and ethical stance. We should not tackle the situation merely as a humanitarian crisis, independent from political, historical and economic crises. Whenever we say “refugee crisis” we are talking about an economical crisis, a historical crisis and a political crisis too.
Although Syrian refugees are the main nationality arriving on European shores, other nationalities are also forced to migrate due to the tragic situations in their home countries. Afghanistan has 
suffered not only more than a decade of economic and political instability. But above all the increasing insurgent activity led by the Taliban, which has caused more than 5,000 civil casualties this year. This explains why the Afghan community is currently the second largest group of refugees to have reached Europe. The second largest group of refugees in the world (2,6 million Afghan refugees). At least 145,000 Afghans have crossed the European borders since 2009. At the same time lets think on the situaution in Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Eritre…
Perceiving refugees as a threat to security by criminalising them, militarisation of the borders, transferring refugees to subcontractor are the anti-migration policies in Europe that have been lasting for years. The main reason for the rise of the boat incidents and the dead bodies washed ashore are the migration policies of the EU. Europe ask Turkey to ban the crossings to Europe, keep the refugees in Turkey and protect “the Fortress of Europe” : Therefore it is planned to turn Turkey into a open-air prison for refugees.
Starting from the war in Syria in April 2011, we have been facing the biggest migration wave since the World War II. Syrian war has lead almost 6 to 7 million people to leave their countries. According to official data, approximately 3 million Syrian refugees are in Turkey. In addition to the Syrians, 250.000 people from the countries that suffer from extreme human rights violations such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea Somali, Iran and Yemen are also living in Turkey.
Turkey which is not giving neither to Syrians nor other refugees official refugee status, thus it is not a safe country for them. They are not under the cover of international law in Turkey without an official refugee status. Even though Syrian people are promised to have the right to remain in Turkey and some of the services under the ‘’temporaray protection regime’’, this regime is just another tool to restrict migration and not acceptable in termes of international law. Turkey’s temporary protection regime consists of three elements: An open-door policy for all Syrians, no forced returns to Syria (non-refoulement) and unlimited duration of stay in Turkey. Altough these are very important and vital but those who enjoyed temporary protection were not allowed to apply for individual refugee status determination, so they did not have any chance to be resettled in a third country by the UNHCR in the same way as other non-European refugees had. This accords unlimited freedom to government agencies to make decisions concerning the lives and future of 3 million Syrian refugees. They can be deported if the goverment decides taht they constitute a risk to the security of the country or a threat to public order. Moreover, altough Turkey spent 10 billion Dolars (only 35 is international aid) in five years for refugees, in practice they are lacking adequate support in terms of basic human needs such as livelihood, education, shelter and health. It is nearly impossible for any country to deal the problem properly for 3 million poeple.
EU is now doing official human trafficiking; sending people who already reached to Europe back to Turkey is an official human trafficiking!
These people has been pushed to the Egean sea by closing borders, by blocking the land access. As if dying at the sea is not enough, now EU destroys refugees’ hope to survive with this deal. EU tries to make people paralyzed and stop struggling for their lives! With readmission agreement, the ones who have suffered the most are migrants losing their lives due to pushback measures and refugees not receiving the international protection they need. By violating the right to seek asylum, these individuals are not only deprived a right stipulated in a legal act, they are also deprived their lives. Humanity is clashing here today with the political games of the West. We should never forget that the readmission agreement is one of the shameful events that took part in the history.
After the agreement was signed between Turkey and the EU, more than 8.000 refugees has already reached Greece through Turkey. North Africa-Italy route has also revived. An “alarming” number of migrants have reached Libya to make their way to Italy, European Council president Donald Tusk warned recently (13 April 2016): “The numbers of would-be migrants in Libya are alarming,” he told the European Parliament in Strasbourg. According to UN figures, around 12,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Italy since the beginning of March. The figure is a sharp increase on February (3,800). On the other hand, the crossings in the Aegean Sea has not totally finalised after the deal. Even though the refugees are aware of them being returned back, they are keep trying to make it to Greece through Turkey. After March 18, more than 8000 refugees have taken this route.
Thus, readmission deal is nothing but a show; the main aim is discouraging people about reaching a dignified life in Europe, about accessing their human rights and about their dedication for struggling. Killing the hope!
The readmission deal is unlawful!
Well-regarded human rights organisations including United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) declare that they will not be a part of this unlawful deal. UNHCR, Amnesty International (AI), High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Doctors Without Borders, French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless people (OFPRA), International Rescue Committee (IRC), Nils Muižnieks the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights state that this agreement corrodes international humanitarian law.
Likewise, people outside of Europe do not have right to seek asylum in Turkey because of the geographical limitations that took place in 1951 Geneva Convention and 1967 New York Additional Protocol. Therefore there is no legal ground to return people back to Turkey. Additionally, Turkey is not prepared for readmission and is not capable to provide decent conditions to a big number of people as a response to an influx from Greece. The future of 3 million Syrians in Turkey is already ambiguous.
In order to become a “safe country”, Turkey needs to give refugee statues to people as a fundamental obligation of refugee law. However Turkey has already declared that this will not be possible 
unless Turkey is a full member of EU. This is nothing but a dirty deal. Human rights groups have said the pact could result in mass returns of asylum seekers who would not receive adequate protection in Turkey.
In Greece, 50.000 refugees are in limbo. They are being held in appalling conditions. In the port of Piraeus approximately 5000 women, children and men are being kept in unhealthy conditions; either at tents or under the tracks. Volunteers provide daily basic needs in the camp where there is no official authority.
Asylum requests are not being undertaken with accordance to the legal frameworks. These people are being a kind of forcibly deported.
We all know that, individual asylum applications should be evaluated by legal experts and this process takes at least one and a half hour. However in Greece, the officers from European Union implement an arbitrary decision that has been taken before.
It is very clear that European countries do not allocate quota and do not accept refugees. This agreement do not guarantee any relocation for refugees in the future as well.
Migration is a big social movement of our times. One million migrants and refugees demolished the borders of the states, Lisbon Agreement and Schengen. They are and they will be important political actors of the future.
And the most importantally, many movements of social solidarity with migrants/refugees occured in all around the World. Despite Europe’s policy towards migrants, people of various countries, from Greece to Germany, have supported and aided refugees seriously and unexpectedly to cross the borders. The existence of solidarity movements is another reason for the fear for refugees entering EU. The Anti-migrant wave in Europe is not a new phenomenon. Solidarity of the people and the peoples’ friendship will be an obstacle towards the anti- migrant atmosphere in Europe that causes fascist organisations to grow.
We believe in solidarity instead of charity, because charity is personal and temporary. It is what makes the weak and the poor dependent. It depends on the decision of the rich and the powerful. Not all the time it is used in a correct way. Charity can never take the place of the social, economic and political common good. It can only be done as a complementary activity. Furthermore, solidarity is prior to a right based struggle. Solidarity does not only consist of giving health care, distributing food and clothing; it means including refugees into the decision making process and acting together with them. It means to avoid from seeing refugees as helpless victims and to support their voice. It means joining the struggle for their rights under their leadership. It means providing opportunity for them to speak on their behalf. It means to avoid from being engaged into vertical policy of the governments and to question its political outcomes.
In this regard, we know the ones who need to create wars in order to secure the markets, to possess energy and resources, to continue the “realisation-evaluation” cycle in military industry. We are calling out to the ones who are the creators of the wars and the ones who are trying to cover the destruction with 3 billion Euros;
The existing conditions of today with immigrants risking their lives for the sake of protection makes the EU asylum system unsustainable. Instead of signing new readmission agreements with other countries, the EU should focus on preventing the desperation leading to deaths.
EU-Turkey “Readmission Deal” should be abrogated. Refugees must not be returned to the countries where they might face persecution.
European countries and the other countries, especially who are militarily active in the region, should take the responsibility of the refugees as much as the neighbouring countries.
Trying to keep refugees away from Europe by providing political prerogatives and financial aids to the countries such as Turkey should be finalised.
Legal and safe passage should be ensured to those who want to go to Europe.
Anti-immigrant border policies that cause deaths and human right exploitations should be stopped.
Turkey should go back to the “open door policy” as a good example to other countries; the deal to send migrants back to Turkey should not be accepted, the refugees should not be sent back to their countries where they might face persecution.
The Associaton of Bridging Peoples