Burden-sharing Games for Asylum Seekers between Turkey and the European Union

Abstract

The marginal amount of legislative activity in the asylum topic suggests that the impact of the EU accession process on Turkish asylum law has been insignificant compared that in other fields of law, despite early gusto. Remarkably, this negative shift in Turkish asylum policy coincides with the adoption of the secondary legislation by the EU throughout the transitional period as envisaged by the Amsterdam Treaty, particularly the Asylum Procedures Directive. The records of interaction between the Union's asylum acquis and the Turkish Government's responses indicate that the problem, at least to a certain extent, arises on account of the Union's asylum acquis. The fact that the Union imposes a burden-shifting tool on an acceding State, as a process of becoming a part of the burden-sharing system within the EU, inevitably raises concerns among Turkish authorities. Therefore, a solution could be found in bringing the proposed legal framework closer to the burden-sharing relationship that exists among the EU Member States.