Guests who drowned: Legal ambiguities behind refugee vulnerabilities

Abstract

In 2015, several thousands of Syrian refugees made the illegal journey from Izmir, Turkey to Western Europe – mainly to Sweden and Germany. This resulted in thousands of drownings in the Aegean Sea and, as many people define, the biggest human tragedy since World War II. The question that keeps being raised among migration practitioners and theoreticians is “Why are they moving?” This study proposes to answer this overarching question by examining different but related queries: “Where are they going?” “Where are they not staying?”, and “Why do so many people die to go to Europe?” It goes further and questions the legal framework behind refugee vulnerability. This thesis argues that the reasons to leave Turkey are constructed by Turkish laws, that vulnerability along the route is created by international laws, and that incentives to go to Sweden and Germany are shaped by Swedish and German laws. In order to gather the relevant data, desktop research was conducted using legal codes, treaties, academic literature, NGO reports and journalistic accounts. The Turkish legal framework on refugees is historically analyzed in order to understand what makes refugees pursue perilous voyages. The EU framework on refugees is evaluated in order to discuss the legal limbo during the border crossings. German and Swedish migration histories and laws are also evaluated and analyzed to show that, although they are creating powerful pull factors, they provide few means of legal travel to their territories.