The EU-Turkey March 2016 Agreement As a Model: New Refugee Regimes and Practices in the Arab Mediterranean and the Case of Libya

Taking as its point of departure the EU-Turkey agreement of March 2016 regarding refugees and migrants, this paper analyses the main elements of the agreement and discusses whether the deal (or parts thereof) could applied to other contexts. It discusses the relevance of the EU-Turkey agreement to the Arab Mediterranean and more specifically in the context of Libya, as and when political and security conditions in that country improve. The author recognizes that despite relevant criticism of the EU-Turkey deal, the agreement may well contain building blocks worth taking into consideration in future migration negotiations between the EU and the Arab Mediterranean.

Paper presented at the seminar “Does the EU-Turkey Deal Represent a Model to be Replicated in Other Contexts?”, Catania, 16 December 2016.