Billions In EU Aid To Turkey Hasn’t Stopped Wave Of Refugees
Turkey is supposed to guard our borders against more refugees and receive financial aid for its services. But refugees fleeing to Europe across the Mediterranean keep coming.
Refugees arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing from Turkey on a dinghy
AYVACIK —
Less than six miles separate this town on Turkey’s western coast from
the Island of Lesbos, Greece. Nearly two-thirds of the 850,000 refugees
who arrived in Europe via the Greek isles in 2015 crossed over to
Lesbos.
But entering European Union territory via Turkey is supposed to have become impossible now, at least according to the Joint Plan of Action
that the EU signed with Turkey at the end of November. This agreement
stipulates that Turkey must patrol its coastlines more effectively and
take back illegal refugees who crossed over from its territory. To be
able to fulfill these terms, Turkey will receive 3 billion euros from
Brussels and Turkish citizens will no longer have to apply for a visa to
enter the EU.
In the first two weeks of 2016, Turkish
authorities intercepted some 2,000 refugees, and arrested 27
traffickers. But is this really a lasting solution?
A few miles south of Ayvacik is Kemal
Nazli’s office, located in a former Greek stately home. As the chief
Turkish national government officer in Ayvacik, Nazil is wondering how
he his supposed to seal off the entire coast of his district, as the EU
has demanded. "We would be able to do more with more aid," he notes.
"But no country is able to keep people outside or inside its borders if these people really want to enter or leave."
Nazil says patrolling the entire shoreline
24/7 is unfeasible for his police force of 250, even in the winter when
there are around 70,000 residents in the area — and certainly not
during the summer, when the population rises to 500,000.
Cash is short
None of the localities along the coast
know exactly how the EU-Ankara Joint Plan of Action will affect them.
But one thing is clear: The 4.6 million euros that Turkey
spends daily on humanitarian aid for refugees is not enough. "We
provide first aid items such as blankets, clothing, baby food," says
41-year-old aid worker Özgür Öztürk. "The police were skeptical at first
but now they call us in to help when they have picked up refugees or
rescued them from sea."
Traffickers are not the only ones making
money from the refugee crisis: Local hoteliers, shop owners, taxi
drivers, jewelers, farmers who rent their fields to the traffickers, and
scavengers who search the beaches for valuables have all capitalized on
the new migrant routes.
Selling life jackets in Izmir, Turkey — Photo: Alice Martins/TNS/ZUMA
A crossing to EU territory, which cost
$3,000 last year, now costs $650, but you will have to share a rubber
dinghy designed for 30 with twice that many. The higher the risk, the
lower the price, although traffickers now promise that should you get
caught, you won’t have to pay twice for the same journey.
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