Turks one of top 4-5 nations to demand asylum from the EU

A top EU representative said Turkey became one of the top 4-5 countries of origin of people who demanded asylum from the EU countries.

Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, head of the EU Delegation to Turkey argued in an interview with T24 web site that the increase in rejection rates in Schengen visa applications from Turkey "was not political."

“The asylum requests originating from Turkish citizens amounted to over 20 thousand this year,” he said. 

Meyer-Landrut said that the hike in asylum requests has “of course played a role in the detailed examination of visa applications."adding that the upward trend in rejection rates was the same worldwide. 

“The rejection rate in Turkey is slightly higher than in the rest of the world," he said.

Meyer-Landrut said there was a serious increase this year in visa applications from Turkey compared to 2020 and 2021. And the applications containing incomplete or forged documents were rejected categorically which increased the overall rate. 

The rate of rejected Schengen visa applications has increased almost five fold between 2014 and 2021, nearly one in five applications ending up rejected. 

In August, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu lambasted the EU countries saying visa delays and rejections by the Western countries against Turkish citizens aimed to leave the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) in a difficult situation ahead of elections.

Turkey sees the visa delays by the US and the EU against Turkish citizens as intentional and will take countermeasures if they persist in doing so after warnings, Cavusoglu said.