Nowadays, despite the vigorous and often aggressive measures taken by nation states to control the entry and accommodation of foreigner within their borders, the number of people migrating illegally increases dramatically every year. This large scale human mobility within the framework of economic, social and political reasons has gradually increased its speed, especially after World War II. The main factor that started this process was the transfer of labour by European countries from other countries to meet the post-war reconstruction. However, the oil crisis and global economic recession in the 1970s led to the discontinue of guest worker programmes and decisions to make migration policies more difficult. By the 1980s, immigration and citizenship laws had become even more challenging. As a result of these developments, international migration trends changed their identity after the 1980s and contributed to the increase in irregular migration. Harsh migration policies have made irregular migration routes attractive rather than preventing the movement of potential migrants in search of better living conditions. These new migration trends are referred to as irregular migration and are movements that are realised place outside the regulatory norms of the source, destination and transit countries. In addition, unlike the general structure, asylum seekers and refugees fleeing from conflict and violence has been caused the irregular migration in this period.
In this process, European countries have remained the main attraction area for migrants due to their improved economic and living conditions, historical ties and proximity to their countries of origin. Developing countries such as Turkey, which borders European countries, are also affected by these migration flows. As a crossroads between source and destination countries, international migration in Turkey was relatively slow until the 1980s and involved the admission of ethnic Turks from neighbouring regions. Since the 1980s, an unprecedented wave of migration has emerged to Turkey and through Turkey to developed Western countries for various reasons, particularly economic, social and political unrest in neighbouring countries. In this process, Turkey has become both a destination, source and transit country.
International migration movements to Turkey (regular and irregular migration) and types of migrants can be divided into three categories according to the economic and social development level of the country of origin, the legal status of migrants and the type of migration. Accordingly, the migrant labour force that enters and leaves the country by obtaining the necessary legal work and residence permits constitutes the first group. These migrants predominantly have citizenship of developed countries. The second group is the irregular migrant labour force who join the labour market without fulfilling the legal requirements. The third group consists of asylum-seekers and refugees who have come to Turkey fleeing from unfavourable conditions in their home countries and are in need of international protection. However, it is very difficult to distinguish the groups in this categorisation. As a matter of fact, irregular migration movement may occur as a result of crossing borders illegally or as a result of not having the legal rights to maintain the right to stay in the country after entering the country legally or carrying out an activity other than the purpose of accommodation. Migrants who start working after entering the country with a tourist visa and do not leave the country even though their visa expires, as well as irregular migrants who enter the country illegally, can apply for asylum at the same time. For these reasons, it is very difficult to distinguish irregular migrants from asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants.
Irregular migrants in Turkey are divided into three categories according to their purpose. These are (i) irregular migrants who intend to use Turkey as a transit country to reach developed countries in the west, mainly Europe, (ii) irregular migrants who come to live and work in Turkey without valid documents, and finally (iii) asylum seekers who have applied for international protection but whose claims have been rejected but who have not left the country. In this sense, it is seen that Turkey is a transit country for some irregular migrants and a destination country for others.
Figures on illegal migrants apprehended in Turkey show that irregular migration gained a significant momentum until the beginning of 2020, before declining again as of 2020. When we look at the distribution of irregular migrants apprehended in the last five years according to their countries of origin, Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine, Turkmenistan, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Yemen, Iran and Pakistan are in the first place. The size and direction of migration flows in countries of origin may change according to internal unrest, political conflicts and economic uncertainties. In this direction, fluctuations and changes in the size and direction of irregular migration received by Turkey may also occur.
Figur 1. Number of irregular migrants apprehended by years
Source: T.C. İçişleri bakanlığı göç idaresi başkanlığı, (2023).
When we look at the actions of irregular migrants at the points of entry into Turkey, transportation-accommodation and exit points within the country; it is seen that illegal entries take place predominantly from the eastern and southern borders, while the exits take place from the western regions. Firstly, they enter Turkey with forged documents or by hiding in vehicles or by walking through mountainous border areas that are difficult to control. Afterwards, they come to western provinces such as Istanbul and Izmir in the country openly or disguised in vehicles. Afterwards, they either leave the land or air border gates with the help of forged documents or cross on foot to Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania and other European countries with the help of boats and boats from the Western and Thracian coasts. Turkey’s role in this east-west flow through is important.
Figure 2. Routes of refugee flows from Asian countries to Europe
Source: ARINÇ, K. (2018).
In the world, illegal migration is mostly carried out by land and sea. The US-Mexico border is the busiest route for irregular migration by road. The air route is not preferred much in illegal migration due to the security measures taken and the more intensive security control compared to other routes. The Turkey-Greece route is frequently used by migrant smugglers when the land route is preferred for crossing to Europe. This is where Turkey’s importance in terms of irregular migration emerges. As a matter of fact, this route is intensively used especially by irregular migrants coming from the Middle East and Central Asia. Since the sea distance between Turkey and Greece is shorter than that between Italy and North African coasts, this route is the second most preferred route for irregular migration.
Turkey, which intensively experiences all three pillars of irregular migration in terms of destination, source and transit migration, has experienced difficulties in controlling irregular migration due to the length of its land and sea borders and the difficult topographical conditions of the area and has not been able to put forward coordinated and stable migration policies until recently. The economic and political turmoil in neighbouring regions has created a complex migration regime in Turkey, including illegal migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and legal migrants. However, recently, with the effect of security perception and the changing international conjuncture, Turkey has entered into a strict control process towards irregular migrants. As a result of the operations carried out by the law enforcement forces against migrant smugglers in the field and the strict measures taken, irregular migrants have started to search for new migration routes. The continuation of this situation depends on the stability and consistency of Turkey’s policy towards irregular migration and the economic and political structure in the region. In this sense, preparations to be made for sudden and intense migration flows to be experienced as in the cases of Syria or Afghanistan are of great importance.
Translator: Cem Talar
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