EU-Turkey Readmission Agreement in the wake of the Migrant Crisis: What Might Go Wrong With It? (original) (raw)

As the "EU-Turkey Statement" after the Summit between the EU and Turkey in 29 November 2015 demonstrated, EU-Turkey Readmission Agreement ("RA"), signed in 16 December 2013 and entered into force in 1 October 2014, seems to be the most important tool for cooperation between EU and Turkey, in order to cope with the migrant flow. Nonetheless, there might be some problems with the RA's full implementation. On the one hand, there might be difficulties with the effective implementation of the RA, due to some political reasons, especially considering its connection with the dialogue towards a visa free regime with Turkey, since the failure in this dialogue may directly affect the effective implementation of the RA (and vice versa). On the other hand, there might be complications with the proper implementation of the RA, because of some legal issues, particularly, in view of its relationship with the human rights and asylum law obligations, since, in general, the removal of a person and its enforcement with the RA should be completed without prejudice to such obligations. Against this background, this paper seeks to determine what might go wrong with the RA as regards its implementation in an effective and/or proper way, and based on these findings, offers some solutions to overcome these potential problems.