UNHCR's Guterres: Turkey should not be treated as buffer

UNHCR's Guterres: Turkey should not be treated as buffer

26 November 2010, Friday / AYŞE KARABAT, ANKARA 1 0 0 0

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Chief Antonio Guterres

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is pleased to see improvements related to refugees and asylum seekers in Turkey, but is worried that these improvements will be used as a pretext by other European countries to dump their own responsibilities on Turkey.

“It is very important to underline that improvement of the protection space in Turkey can never be used as a pretext for others to abdicate their protection responsibilities," he said. Before the UNHCR can provide refugees with protection, an environment conducive to the facilitation of this protection is required. It refers to such an environment as “protection space.” “We will never agree to the idea that Turkey should be a kind of buffer or that protection should be dumped into Turkey from other areas in Europe,” Antonio Guterres, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, told Today’s Zaman in an interview,” he added. Former Portuguese Prime Minister Guterres, the first commissioner of the UN Refugee Agency to visit Turkey, met with President Abdullah Gül, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, State Minister Egemen Bağış and Interior Minister Beşir Atalay to talk about Turkey’s new legislation on refugees and asylum seekers which will soon be submitted to Parliament. He also thanked Turkey for its cooperation with other parts of the world and inquired as to the possibility of enhancing relations. Turkey, one of the most popular routes for people smugglers trying to take people from impoverished countries into Europe, in the past year has taken steps to improve the way it deals with refugees and asylum seekers. The UNCHR warns that this should not be used by Europeans to escape from their own responsibilities vis-a-vis these people Although Turkey is one of the most important transition countries for refugees and asylum seekers, it still lacks comprehensive legislation on the matter. It also implements geographical limitations, meaning it does not grant refugee status to people who are not coming from Europe. But all of these regulations are about the change. “For the first time you will have comprehensive legislation on immigration and related aspects that will translate into a legal framework. We are very enthusiastic about these developments and are very willing to cooperate with the government,” Guterres said. Referring to Turkey’s recent developments, which pleased the UNHCR, he said the protection space in Turkey has been enlarged and the agency had better access to asylum seekers. He also added that they use a careful approach in sending back asylum seekers and that there were improvements in the welfare of the refugees. Guterres emphasized that these improvements will lay the ground for new legislation and that they are also happy to see this legislation has been prepared in cooperation with civil society. “We underline that this legislation is prepared in a very open way, in dialogue with society, which is a guarantee of its commitment,” he said. Guterres, however, also stressed that they are well aware of the enormous challenges that Turkey is facing due to its location and that this is reason enough for their strong commitment to push for the burden to be shared. “We believe that there must be international solidarity with Turkey in the assumption of the responsibility to protect refugees. We appeal to other countries to also join these groups to resettlement countries, expressing their solidarity in sharing the burden with Turkey,” he said. He added that it is also important to fight against xenophobia because refugees and asylum seekers must be allowed to find a new place to rebuild their lives. Guterres added that Europe should have a very clear attitude of solidarity with Turkey. “In order to allow more effective development for the protection space in Turkey -- namely, lifting these kinds of geographical limitations -- it is important to have from Europe a very clear attitude of solidarity with Turkey and an effective mechanism of burden sharing,” he said. He underlined that the role of Turkey in other parts of the world is also very important, giving the example of Pakistan, where Turkish NGOs are very active. “Turkey is playing a bigger and bigger role in international relations. We see there enormous opportunity for enhancing cooperation. There is a way to go, but we are moving in the right direction,” he said.