by Jonah Gadsby, BA European Studies
Readmission agreements are an important tool used by the EU to influence the legal framework of migration in third countries and externalise the Union’s migration policy. This paper will be based on the question: how effective has the EU’s Readmission Agreement with Turkey been in bringing Turkish asylum law in line with European fundamental rights standards? It will answer these questions through an analysis of the readmission agreement, the reforms introduced by Turkey into the 2013/14 Law on Foreigners and International Protection (LFIP) in order to facilitate the agreement, Turkish authorities’ effectiveness in implementing the readmission agreement and the related new legal framework created by the LFIP, and finally, by engaging with arguments that Turkish asylum law and migration management practices are too underdeveloped for Turkey to be classified as a safe third country for returnees. The paper will take position that while the Union’s prevailing policy conditionality approach has positively contributed to the development of Turkish migration law in line with European fundamental rights standards, the flexibility inherent to the policy conditionality strategy has weakened the Union’s leverage and allowed Turkish authorities to dodge its responsibilities to ensure fundamental rights in implementing the readmission agreement and the LFIP.
