In the short time since it was announced, a great deal has been written about the EU-Turkey refugee deal, with some commentators suggesting that the proposed arrangement represents a new turn in European asylum policy. In fact, it is simply the latest episode in a longstanding effort on the part of EU members and other industrialized states to curtail and manage the arrival of asylum-seekers.
From the mid-1980s onwards, there was a steady rise in the number of asylum applications being submitted in the world’s more prosperous countries. Their response was to introduce a succession of measures intentionally designed to curtail that movement, including new visa requirements and pre-boarding documentation checks, sanctions on airlines and other transport companies carrying people without the requisite papers, the increased fortification of land borders, and many other such restrictive measures.
Indeed, industrialized states continue to look very hard for alternative ways to curtail the arrival of asylum-seekers, and three are particularly pertinent to the current deal being negotiated between the EU and Turkey.
