https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9527-5343
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ABSTRACT
This study examines the cooperation and coordination mechanisms established by Turkey, the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) to ensure Syrians’ human security in Turkey. Focusing empirically on security governance processes and practices that have been applied to increase the human security of Syrians in Turkey since 2011. To this end, policies on burden sharing, freedom from fear, and freedom from want regarding Syrians in Turkey are presented. To identify the security needs of Syrians in Turkey and develop solutions adjusted to their needs, the UN and the EU cooperate with the public authorities in Turkey on policy-making processes and provide input for the institutionalisation of Turkey’s asylum system. This study argues that in theory, the actors, who set the security agenda, can create joint policies by focusing on human security and that in practice, this has produced policy implications regarding the human security of Syrians in Turkey.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Geolocation information
Ankara, Turkey, 39.9299°N, 32.8665°E.
Notes
1 The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre Report of 13 June 2014 stated that 9500 people a day – about one family every 60 s – were displaced inside Syria (Erdoğan Citation2014, 1).
2 The number of registered Syrians in Turkey was 3,651,428. For current data, see the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) Operational Portal.
3 Protection, health, basic needs, socio-economic support and education topics are mostly included in the projects, besides technical assistance administrative, education and health infrastructure, migration management, monitoring and evaluation, audit, communication issues. Public institutions, local administrations, non-governmental organisations and charitable foundations are also included in these projects. See the EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey: List of projects committed/decided, contracted, disbursed. Accessed 11 August 2022. https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2022-06/Facility%20table%20April%202022.pdf.
4 Migration and asylum issues have become important topics of contemporary security politics. This trend has often been referred to as “the securitisation of migration”, that is, the extreme politicisation of migration and its presentation as a security threat. The issue of combating irregular migration has been one of the most emphasised issues by the EU during Turkey's EU membership process. See Kirişci (Citation2003).
5 There were influxes of refugees to Turkey following the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War, and the conflicts in Afghanistan.
6 Turkey grants formal refugee status only to people from Europe but provides protection and temporary asylum to non-European refugees. See: LFIP (Citation2013, Article 61–63). Accessed 19 October, 2021. https://www.unhcr.org/tr/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2017/04/LoFIP_ENG_DGMM_revised-2017.pdf.
7 By September 2013, the total resources allocated by the Turkish government for Syrians were more than $2 billion (Directorate General of Migration Management Citation2014). By 2019, Turkey spent $40 billion to provide Syrians with education, health care and housing (Erdoğan Citation2019). Registered Syrians have the right to access the same health services as Turkish citizens in the provinces where they are registered.
8 The EU first coined the concept of temporary protection in the early 2000s. See Council Directive Citation2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001.
9 In this study, Europeanisation refers to the exporting of EU norms and governance to a candidate country. For detailed information on the concept of Europeanisation, see: Olsen (Citation2002, p. 924).
10 Following the commencement of negotiations for Turkey’s accession to the EU, the European Commission has published annual Progress Reports on Turkey since 1997. The amount of money spent by Turkey and the EU on Syrians was first reported in 2015 Report, after the enforcement of the EU-Turkey Statement in 2016, the proportion of Turkey’s spending on Syrians to its gross national product was given in the subsequent reports. For the EU Progress Reports and country reports on Turkey, see the Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate for EU Affairs.
11 Pitel and Barker (Citation2016).
12 For detailed information, see: European Commission (Citation2021b).
13 For detailed information, see: European Commission (Citation2021a).
14 Number of Registered Syrians, Accessed 24 February 2022. https://multeciler.org.tr/eng/number-of-syrians-in-turkey/.
15 Number of Syrians Living in Cities, Accessed 24 February 2022. https://multeciler.org.tr/eng/number-of-syrians-in-turkey.
16 For more detailed information, see: the Missing Migrants Project. Accessed 22 November 2021. https://missingmigrants.iom.int/region/mediterranean.
17 For detailed information, see: UNICEF.
18 Temporary Protection Regulation (Council of Ministers Decision No: 2014/6883) dated 13/10/2014 was published within the framework of Article 91 of Law No. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection (LFIP).
19 The UNHCR had completed the “Reinforcement of Turkey's National Asylum System” project, financed by the EU, which it had been carrying out for 3.5 years in cooperation with the DGMM. See UNHCR (Citation2021a).
20 For the content of the EU’s pre-accession support to Turkey, see: “IPA Regional Development Programmes in Turkey”, http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/ipa/turkey/.
21 For the definition of refugees with “special needs” and the procedures for their resettlement, see: the UNHCR’s Citation1998 decision, “Note on resettlement of refugees with special needs, EC/48/SC/CRP.28”, Accessed 13 May 2018. http://www.unhcr.org/excom/standcom/3ae68d0b1c/note-resettlement-refugees-special-needs.html#.
22 For detailed information, the UNHCR, Global Compact on Refugees Digital Platform.
23 Within the framework of the 3RP, the yearly response to targeted groups of refugees is reported and achievements are published at the end of every year. The 3RP Turkey Achievements 2017 provided relevant data.
24 EU Delegation to Turkey, Supporting the National Institutions in Turkey to Mitigate the Impact of the Syrian Refugee Crisis, accessed 16 October 2021. https://www.avrupa.info.tr/en/project/supporting-national-institutions-turkey-mitigate-impact-syrian-refugee-crisis-8004.
25 For up-to-date information on assistance extended to Syrians within the framework of the EU Financial Aid Programme, see: European Commission (Citation2021e).
26 For a detailed analysis of the ESSN Programme by the World Food Programme, the implementing partner of the project, see: WFP (Citation2019).
27 On 31 March 2019, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security announced that the number of Syrians provided with work permits in Turkey was 31.185. See: Refugees and Asylum Seekers Assistance and Solidarity Association, “Number of Syrians in Turkey June 2021”, Accessed 23 July 2021. https://multeciler.org.tr/turkiyede-calisma-izni-verilen-suriyeli-sayisi/.
28 For detailed information on the project, see: ILO (Citation2018).
29 According to our personal observations, employers are hesitant to hire Syrians who apply to İŞKUR.
30 For detailed information, see: the Global Compact on Refugees, https://globalcompactrefugees.org/article/promoting-integration-syrian-kids-turkish-education-system-piktes.
31 For detailed information, see: Delegation of the European Union to Turkey (Citation2021a).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Burak Tangör
Burak Tangör is an associate professor at the Department of International Relations, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. He is also the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Hacettepe University. Previously he was an associate professor at the Public Administration Institute for Turkey and the Middle East where he was the editor of the Amme İdaresi Dergisi (indexed in SSCI). He obtained a BA degree from the University of Ankara, Turkey, MA both from the University of Ankara and the University of Essex, UK, and a PhD from the Gazi University, Turkey. His research focuses on security governance and European integration. His recent publications include “The Energy Community and Europeanization of South East Europe and beyond: a rational choice - historical institutionalist explanation”, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 2021, doi: 10.1080/14782804.2021.1939663; “NATO-EU Strategic Partnership: Where is it Heading?”, Perceptions: Journal of International Affairs, Vol.26, No.1, pp.73-99, 2021.
Alpay Alpaydin
Mr. Alpaydın received BA from the Political Science Faculty in Ankara University and completed his MA in Security Studies from the TOBB University of Economics and Technology. Since November 2017, he has been working as a Protection Assistant in projects funded by the UNHCR and UNICEF, for the assessment of needs of refugees in the field and their referral to institutions. He started to be appointed Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Officer on the 1st of May, 2022. This includes reporting Marmara’s refugee trends to the stakeholders and data analysis of project implementations and its achievements.