Syrian Asylum Seekers and Humanitarian Aid Programmes: The Problem of Auditing EU Funds and Proposed Solutions

Introduction

With approximately 4 million asylum seekers, Türkiye is foremost among the countries hosting the largest number of forcibly displaced migrants in the world. Following the mass migration caused by the conflicts in Iraq in the 1980s and 1990s, the migration to Türkiye in 2011 of masses fleeing the conflict in Syria gave rise to debates on migration management at global level. Although the debates between Ankara and the EU brought the principle of humanitarian burden-sharing to the fore, the EU’s efforts to remain the main player on the ground as the actor that provides, distributes and audits the funds have resulted in a number of universally accepted principles not being applied. In other words, the attempt by the actor providing the funds to control their use and auditing single-handedly has, on the one hand, undermined trust in international organisations and, on the other, disrupted Türkiye’s humanitarian migration management policy. Through illustrative analyses, this report argues that international institutions have displayed unsuccessful management in many areas, such as accountability, transparency, auditability, observability, coordination with public authorities and the delivery of funds to those in need