"I think there can be a deal," Gowans tells Loud & Clear host Brian Becker. "It’s a deal that, essentially…would allow the EU shirk its responsibility to people fleeing war by outsourcing to Turkey the policing of Europe’s borders.
"This agreement would say: for every refugee that arrives in Greece, [they] would be sent back to Turkey. For everyone that’s been sent back to Turkey, the EU agrees to resettle one refugee who’s already in Turkey. Those who are sent back go to the back of the queue."
While this system may benefit European powers, it may be against international law.
"This isn’t legal," he says. "The UN Refugee Convention forbids deporting any person to a country where his or her life or freedom could be threatened, and there’s a question of whether, indeed, that might happen in Turkey.
"Some European officials have even conceded that this scheme is illegal, and certainly if we’re talking about mass deportations…those are illegal under the Geneva Convention and international law."
While the agreement is an attempt to keep asylum seekers out of Europe, the negotiations in Brussels coincide with Syrian peace talks taking place in Geneva. While ending the war in Syria could solve the refugee crisis in a more humane way, European leaders remain unwilling to work with the legitimate government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"Who’s stirred up this war in Syria?" Gowans asks. "The European Union has played a significant role…in providing funding and assistance…to jihadist rebels who are acting as proxies on behalf of NATO and on behalf of other US allies.
"If you’re really interested in solving the refugee crisis, stop making refugees by stop stirring up war in Syria in the Middle East."
While the refugee crisis has led to a rise in right-wing xenophobia across Europe, Gowans explains that this partially the fault of EU neoliberal economic policies.
"If there was a full-employment economy, if you had adequate and decent social welfare that was guaranteed to all, it’s not clear that you’d have the same kind of reaction to people seeking asylum that we have now."
These policies are unlikely to change any time soon.
"The current arrangement is obviously geared toward profit making, the kind of profit making societies in which the most important constituents of the society are shareholders and major investors, and of course they’re not interested in full-employment or decent social welfare," Gowans says.
As Syrian peace talks continue in Geneva, Gowans doesn’t have much hope for a satisfying conclusion to the five-year civil war.
"It’s clear that the opposition probably wants an arrangement in which Assad – and more importantly the Arab nationalists around him – steps down.
"So what are the prospects? I’m not sure they’re that great."
