The EU-Turkey deal and the impact on refugee children

Since the controversial EU–Turkey deal dramatically lowered crossings over the Aegean Sea, Syrian refugees in particular have been seeking alternative routes and returning to the treacherous Libyan route. Since the start of the so-called “refugee crisis” this route had become the deadliest sea crossing in the world – with almost 3.000 people dying in 2015 when compared to approximately 800 on the shorter passage between Turkey and Greece. This chapter focuses on the EU–Turkey deal and specifically on its impact on refugee children. I argue that the EU finds itself in a long lasting moral conundrum when dealing with, on the one hand, what is the most pressing issue for European citizens in the first half of 2016 (migration) and, on the other hand, its ethical and legal obligations – and those of its member states – under the UN convention on the rights of the child. This conundrum is getting even more challenging to resolve with the attempted July 2016 coup in Turkey and Erdogan’s authoritarian responses to his opponents.