Situation of Readmitted Migrants and Refugees from Greece to Turkey under the EU-Turkey Statement

Under the Greece-Turkey Readmission Agreement, irregular migrants and asylum seekers whose claims are found inadmissible by the Greek authorities are readmitted to Turkey since the EU-Turkey Statement was announced in March 2016. This report is based on field and desk research on conditions faced by migrants and refugees readmitted from Greece to Turkey and focuses on their access to effective international protection.

This report, based on the field and desk research between December 2016 and March 2017, highlights several problematic practices which lead to serious human rights violations in Turkey. The research demonstrates that, among other issues, access to international protection from detention in Turkey is exceptional in practice and most detainees are subject to clear infringements of procedural rights, a situation that could lead to violations of the principle of non-refoulement. Research also underlines that readmitted Syrian nationals are subject to arbitrary detention without legal basis and furthermore, recent changes in asylum legislation in Turkey puts asylum seekers and refugees at risk of deportation to their country of origin without juridical review, which effectively undermines the international protection mechanism.