Describing an agreement between Turkey and the European Union to keep millions of refugees from entering Europe as “a deal between devils,” Glen Ford reports that Turkey has “cashed in on the people it has helped make homeless.” As Al Jazeera reported, Turkey accepted $3.3 billion from the European Union (EU) “in return for checking the flow of refugees across the Aegean Sea.” Turkey reportedly asked for double that amount to cover the costs of dealing with the refugees.
Earlier in March 2016, European Council president Donald Tusk had warned refugees from Asia and Africa, “Do not come to Europe… It is all for nothing.”
Noting that “the great bulk of Turkey’s refugees are victims of Turkey’s role in the war against Syria, in alliance with Europe and the United States and the royal oil aristocrats of the Persian Gulf,” Ford describes human trafficking in Turkey “on a scale not seen since the Atlantic slave trade.”
In addition to the EU money, Turkey has also sought admission to the European Union—and, with this, the right for 75 million Turks to enter Europe without visa restrictions—as a condition for controlling its refugee population. Thus, according to Ford, Turkey has engaged in a “vast protections racket trap,” effectively agreeing to protect Europe from further incursions by “the formerly colonized peoples whose labor and lands have fattened Europe and its white settler states for half a millennium.”
However, Ford concludes, “Europeans will never accept Turkey into the fold, because it is Muslim and not-quite-white.”
Sources:
Glen Ford, “Turkey and Europe: Human Trafficking on a Scale Not Seen Since the Atlantic Slave Trade,” Black Agenda Report, March 8, 2016, http://www.blackagendareport.com/turkey_europe_human_trafficking.
“Refugee Crisis: EU and Turkey Reach ‘Breakthrough’ Deal,” Al Jazeera, March 8, 2016, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/refugee-crisis-eu-turkey-agree-proposal-160308021149403.html,
Student Researcher: Elizabeth Ramirez (College of Marin)
Faculty Evaluator: Susan Rahman (College of Marin)