The role of readmission agreement in combating irregular migration: The Case of Türkiye-European Union

Migration is a phenomenon that has existed throughout history of humanity, and in this study, people or masses of people are displaced due to economic, social, political, geographical etc. reasons. Irregular migration is the situation where people go to other countries illegally or by exceeding the legal exit times of their countries, instead of going from one country to another legally. This may create problems for the country of destination because states face difficulties in verifying the identity of people who come to the country illegally, finding jobs, accessing health services, providing shelter and so on. From the country of origin perspective, when people want to leave their home country, they need to go to the destination country with visas, passports and other legal procedures. However, those who want to leave the country illegally without complying with these procedures may want to go to other countries in violation of the laws of their country, and they do. There can be many causations for this, for example, people may be forced to leave their country for reasons such as economic opportunities, political oppressions, human rights violations, war or natural disasters. From a country of transit perspective, people may use these countries as a waypoint to reach the country of destination. In this case, their basic needs such as human rights, health, security, etc. may not be catered in country of transit. Irregular migrant's stay in countries of transit is limited and they may need to travel illegally again to reach the country of destination. At this point, readmission agreements, which are one of the most effective means of combating irregular migration, are agreements that ensure the safe return of irregular migrants in a country to the country of origin or the country they last transited through, within the framework of the conditions and rules set in the agreement. The goal of readmission agreements is to protect the interests of both countries of origin and destination. While the countries of origin want to prevent population loss in their countries through the return of migrants, countries of destination want to minimize the social and economic problems caused by irregular migrants. This study, which deals with readmission agreements, one of the most important means to combat irregular migration, consists of three parts. In the first part, the concept of migration is touched on and the types of migration are detailed. In addition, the concept of irregular migration is examined in this part and the conceptual framework of the subject is drawn. In the second part, readmission agreements and in the third part, readmission agreements between the European Union and Türkiye will be evaluated. The aim of the study is to determine what Türkiye, which was caught off guard by the irregular migrant influx arising from the 2011 Syrian Civil War, has done in this combat through readmission agreements (like the March 18 Agreement) with the European Union and to try to explain that the combating irregular migration is one of the biggest problems of Türkiye and the World. Keywords: Irregular Migration, Türkiye, European Union, Readmission Agreement