Amid an increasing number of Turkish citizens seeking refuge in Europe, particularly in Germany, the German and Turkish governments have reached an agreement on the deportation of more than 13,500 Turks whose asylum applications were rejected, the German Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) newspaper reported.
According to FAZ, after months of negotiations with the Turkish government, Germany will begin to deport a large number of Turkish citizens, beginning with 200 Turks who will be deported to Turkey on several scheduled flights from various German airports. The newspaper, citing German government sources, said this is only the beginning of “an offensive to deport Turks.”
Turkey has offered to take back up to 500 citizens a week from Germany, for which preparations are underway, FAZ said. Although Turkey continues to reject deportation by charter flight, the Turkish government seems to be willing to accept such flights in the future if they are called “special flights,” the report said.
Larger groups of people can only be permanently taken out of a country by charter flight. Turkey had previously refused to allow such flights because it feared damage to its image since such flights are mostly used for the deportation of people from Syria and Afghanistan.
The number of Turkish asylum seekers in Germany was so high in 2023 that Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised to address the issue. “We must finally deport on a large scale,” Scholz said in October 2023, referring to asylum seekers with applications that had been rejected.
A breakthrough was apparently achieved during a visit Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid to Berlin a short time later, in November. Since then, Turkey has been very cooperative, according to a statement from Berlin to FAZ.
Approval rate only 13 percent
Last year the number of Turkish asylum seekers rose sharply, by more than 150 percent compared to the previous year, putting Turks in second place after Syrians for filing the most asylum applications in Germany. The numbers have declined this year, and Turkey is now in third place behind Afghanistan.
According to FAZ, the main reason for the migration of so many people is the poor economic situation in Turkey, where the official inflation rate stood more than 80 percent last year.
Turks who seek asylum for economic reasons are rejected since economic problems are not a reason to be granted asylum, while the risk of political persecution is.
This was reflected in a low approval rate, with only 13 percent of asylum applications approved, meaning that the approval rate for Turks is significantly lower than for Syrians or Afghans.
The number of applications rose particularly sharply in the second half of 2023, when President Erdoğan secured yet another term in office, which apparently created a feeling of hopelessness among dissidents.
Following a failed coup in 2016 that led to a widespread crackdown on dissent by the Turkish government, the number of Turkish nationals seeking asylum in Germany and other Western European countries saw a significant increase.
An ongoing economic crisis caused by skyrocketing inflation, which currently stands at over 50 percent, and the constant depreciation of the Turkish lira is also prompting some Turks to look for ways to leave the country for a better life in Europe.