On 30 January 2016, Refugee Rights Turkey held a 1-day workshop in Istanbul with representatives from Turkish refugee advocacy NGOs, selected academics, and European experts from ECRE and Dutch Council for Refugees. The workshop sought to take stock of the recent EU-Turkey deal on migration and discuss the impact of the new cooperation measures on refugee protection.

During the workshop, discussions were held regarding key aspects of the  migration cooperation framework agreed between EU and Turkey on 29 November 2015. Participants raised questions, concerns and recommendations in relation to the various cooperation measures in the pipeline, including the channelling and focusing of EU financial solidarity to strengthen Turkey’s refugee response, more dedicated deployment of migration control measures and the impact of the future implementation of the EU-Turkey readmission agreement on the availability and quality of protection available to refugees on both sides of the border.

European experts from ECRE and the Dutch Council for Refugees contributed to the discussions with analysis and perspectives regarding the impact of the surge in Syrian refugee arrivals in 2015 on the national asylum systems in EU member states and on the politics of asylum and migration at EU level generally.