Evaluation Note / Nilgün Arısan Eralp

"Germany and the EU have both taken a far greater interested in Turkey as a so-called strategic cooperation partner since the beginning of the recent refugee crisis:

• The war in Syria has created over 5 million refugees. Last summer, Europe was overwhelmed with these mass population movements. Approximately 1.5 million people entered the EU illegally in 2015.
• According to the FRONTEX, just under 900,000 refugees and irregular migrants crossed the EU’s sea borders via the Eastern Mediterranean route in 2015.
• Some forecasts predicted the arrival of up to three million in the EU this year.

As a response, the EU led by Germany has attempted to stem the disorderly flow of migrants to Europe and establish a process whereby some limited, legitimate asylum seekers could enter the EU in an orderly manner through resettlement. Turkey, meanwhile, has pursued an ‘open door’ policy toward Syrian migrants since 2011, hosting over 2.7 million Syrian refugees (as ‘guests’ in Turkey) with limited international support.

As more refugees have started to flow to Europe, Turkey has been criticised for its inability to manage its borders effectively and for becoming a ‘highway’ for the transit of refugees, as well as irregular migrants. Facing the most serious refugee crisis in their history since World War II, which has turned into an almost an solidarity crisis for the entire Union, the EU and, above all Germany, have been obliged to cooperate with Turkey in its efforts to respond to the crisis. The reluctance of many EU countries to accept refugees also played a role in the EU’s turning to Turkey."

You may read full paper from here.

This note published by CESifo Group.