The sheep that god lost: ‘legally’ circumventing the human rights of undocumented migrants in Turkey

ABSTRACTThe world witnessed the forceful repulsion of undocumented migrants when the Turkish government unilaterally repealed the EU-Turkey Deal in the Spring of 2020 and opened its border to allow migrants to reach the Greek border. In general, the rights of undocumented migrants are widely abused, particularly during migrants' journeys towards asylum applications and pending status. This article examines in-depth how states violate the rights of undocumented migrants, despite existing international and European human rights protection regimes. I argue that states engage in political malignancy by creating an accountability (compliance) gap for abusing the grey areas of international law, where they consciously perform policies that harm undocumented migrants. Moreover, I also argue that states cooperate in those grey areas to overcome their human rights obligations and to fend off the migrant flows.KEYWORDS: Irregular migrationhuman rightsinternational cooperationpolitical malignancyEU-Turkey Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Disclaimer StatementFunded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or [name of the granting authority]. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the European Commission [Jean Monnet Module Award EUHR 101047432].Notes on contributorsTuğba BayarDr. Tuğba Bayar is an instructor at the International Relations Department of Bilkent University. She holds a BA in Political Science and Public Administration from Bilkent University. She received her MSc degree in Middle East Studies program at the Middle East Technical University, Turkey, and completed her PhD degree at Otto-Friedrich-Universität, Bamberg, Germany. She received research grants from TÜBİTAK and the European Commission. Currently he is the coordinator of a Jean Monnet Module project entitled 'International and European Protection of Human Rights.'