The EU-Turkey Agreement on the Syrian Refugees violates the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees and the Geneva Conventions

The EU-Turkey deal on sending the Syrian Refugees back to Turkey sealed last week is in clear violation of Article 26 of the UN Convention on Refugees; in addition to being in violation of Article 1 on Definition and Article 32 on Expulsion of Refugees and several other Articles of this Convention and international Humanitarian and Human Rights Law.

The Article 26 of the Convention regarding 'freedom of movement' states that "Each Contracting State shall accord to refugees lawfully in its territory the right to choose their place of residence to move freely within its territory, subject to any regulations applicable to aliens generally in the same circumstances." Therefore, the Syrian refugees have a right to "choose their place of residence to move freely within its territory" of the country they are in now; be it Germany, Greece or Italy.

According to the UN, a Refugee is a person who "owing to well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country." Article 1A[2], The UN Convention 1951. This definition now has an universal application by virtue of the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees 1967.*

We ask this question to you, would you not consider that the people now fleeing Syria, Iraq and the neighboring countries in the Middle East leaving their country "owing to well founded fear of being persecuted", and that they are "unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to" return to Syria and those war torn countries? If you agree, the Syrians and other asylum seekers in Europe from the Middle East right now are "Refugees", says the United Nations.

We have searched the internet using Google to find the Text of the Agreement, but was unable to find a copy. However, the 'Council of the European Union' website contains a Press Release of the EU which describes the people concerned as " irregular migrants to Turkey"; while the 'EU-Turkey statement, 18 March 2016' found in the same website calls it a 'migration crisis'. We say that by terming these people 'migrants', instead of Refugees the EU, Turkey and the EU-Turkey deal have violated the UN definition of 'Refugees' set out in the Article 1 of the 1951 Convention as we have quoted above. By doing this the above mentioned authorities have robed these traumatized, poor and helpless people their right to take refuge is a country away from the war they are trying to flee.

The Agreement therefore, also violates Article 1 of the UN Convention on Refugees of 1951. In accordance to the definition of a 'Refugee' adopted by the UN as quoted above, these people, the Syrians and other people from the war torn Middle East are "Refugees" and entitled to the protection provided by the UN Convention of 1951, as opposed to 'immigrants' as they are being termed frequently by the EU and the media.

Turkey is a party to the war, as they have bombed targets inside the war zones of Syria and the surrounding area. Therefore, as soon as the Refugees return from Europe to Turkey, they shall be covered by the Geneva Convention No. IV as well. Having said that let us not forget that France itself bombed Syria in the last year and by doing that became a party to the war, and we argue that the EU as a whole has become a party to the war in Syria as in this EU-Turkey Deal the EU is not acting keeping France outside the deal. Therefore, we conclude that, the deal also violates the Geneva Conventions.

They are 'Refugees', not 'Immigrants'.

Notes: 

* The Protocol of 1967 states: "2. For the purpose of the present Protocol, the term “refugee” shall, except as regards the application of paragraph 3 of this article, mean any person within the definition of article 1 of the Convention as if the words “As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and ...” “and the words”... “a result of such events”, in article 1 A (2) were omitted." Art. 1[2].