EU officials visit Turkey to set up camps
01 May 1998
The adoption of the 46 point Action Plan on the influx of migrants from Iraq and the neighbouring regions on 26 January was followed by a series of moves which emphasised the far-reaching nature of the Plan (see Statewatch, vol 8 no 1). The Action Plan does not just refer to Iraq, indeed the initiative is primarily concerned with plugging the gaps in the operation of existing policies (for example, the Dublin Convention and Eurodac) and second, and specifically, to deal with migrants coming through Turkey. On 29 January no less than seven Council Working Parties were circulated by the EU Presidency with the "EU action plan" assigning task to each (Asylum, EURODAC, Migration, Visa, Europol, CIREA and CIREFI Working Parties). To effect the Plan a high-level group visited Turkey to discuss the setting in of "camps" with EU help from which UNHCR are to be expressly excluded.
At the end of April a Joint Action was adopted to provide finance for the "voluntary repatriation of displaced persons who have found temporary protection" in the EU. At the end of May the chair of the Justice and Home Affairs Council, Jack Straw for the UK Presidency, denied all knowledge of plans being made by EU officials for "camps" in Turkey.
Joint Action
The Joint Action, adopted on 27 April, refers to the "voluntary repatriation" of: a) "displaced persons who have found temporary protection" in the EU; b) asylum seekers and c) "the Council and Commission" have confirmed that it:
"may be used for the funding of projects to assist the voluntary return of third-country nationals holding a permanent residence permit in one of the Member States."
The wording of the Joint Action suggests in Article 1.2 migrants and others would be repatriated to "their country of origin". However, this may not be the only use of the Joint Action. The accompanying press release on 27 April made clear the link to the Action Plan, which talks of returning people to their "region of origin", by saying that the Joint Action gave "a legal and financial basis to the implementation of the Action Plan on the influx of migrants from Iraq and the neighbouring region."
The Action Plan also allows for another element in the initiative by seeking to "identify safe areas within the region of origin ("internal flights" options)". It would appear that people given temporary protection and asylum seekers from within the EU could be collected together and sent/"repatriated" to "camps" in the "region of origin". The K4 Committee report on the visit to Turkey spells out what a "region of origin" might be when it refers to migrants in or passing through that country from Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
EU officials meet with Security Police and Ministers
The EU high-level group of officials visiting Istanbul and Ankara included the chair of the K4 Committee, the chair of the Migration Working Group, with representatives from the Commission and the General Secretariat of the Council (DG H). On 9 March in Istanbul the EU group met with Mr Cernal Aydin, Deputy Head of the Security Police in the Istanbul Police Department and Mr Orgun Aksu, head of the foreigner's branch of the Police Department. They said they were aware of "illegal immigration by land from the neighbouring region" from the six named countries (see above). Among their requests was help on the "readmission of third country nationals to Bangladesh and Pakistan".
On 10 March the EU group met officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior. Mr Erkan Gozer, Director General for Consular, Legal and Property Services told them that Turkey was a:
"transit point given the attraction of the EU to illegal third country national immigrants seeking asylum for economic purposes."
It should be noted at this point that nowhere does the document refer to Kurdish people. Turkey, with help from Italy, was going to create:
"recepti