Consider that Jordan hosts refugees from Syria who have certain demands on Jordan:
Jordan's has warned Syrian refugees in its tent camp near the Syrian border against rioting.
Public security officials say rioting by 200 refugees late Tuesday over the camp's 'poor services' injured 26 Jordanian security officers.
Refugees, once they reach your territory, become a responsibility that you cannot escape under international law:
It is widely accepted that the prohibition of forcible return is part of customary international law. This means that even States that are not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention must respect the principle of non-refoulement (return against their will to their country of origin). Therefore, States are obligated under the Convention and under customary international law to respect the principle of non-refoulement. If and when this principle is threatened, UNHCR can respond by intervening with relevant authorities, and if it deems necessary, will inform the public.
So is it any wonder that Turkey, contemplating the possibility that refugee flows to Turkey could turn into a flood might want to keep refugees from entering Turkey and thus creating an obligation to take care of them on Turkey's own soil?
Syria's refugee exodus is accelerating and up to 200,000 people could settle in Turkey alone if the conflict worsens, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, increasing pressure for creation of a buffer zone inside Syria.
Turkey has floated the idea of a "safe zone" to be set up for civilians under foreign protection as fighting has intensified in a 17-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
I'm not trying to pick on Turkey, mind you. We've done that with refugees from Cuba by intercepting them at sea and keeping them in Cuba. Australia, too, tries to keep economic refugees from reaching Australia's shores. I bet Jordan wishes it could get away with a buffer zone inside Syria to keep refugees out of Jordan.
But it is a humorous incentive for intervention, you have to admit, given the international community's preference for non-interference in internal affairs of member states.
UPDATE: Turkey will ask for that humanitarian zone inside Syria:
Turkey's foreign minister will urge the Security Council on Thursday to set up a safe zone in Syria to protect thousands of civilians fleeing the civil war, but his appeal is almost certain to go nowhere given the deep divisions in the U.N.'s most powerful body.
Turkey knows Russia and China won't allow the UN Security Council to approve such a zone. But Turkey will want to show that they did all they could to gain the sainted international community's approval and act unilaterally or with a coalition of the willing only when that body shows it is often the last line of defense for cruel despots who have the membership card that gets them in the door.
UPDATE: France and Britain sound like they are on board, with or without the UN:
France and Britain warned Syria's President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday that military action to secure safe zones for civilians inside the country was being considered despite the paralysis of the U.N. Security Council over how to end the 17-month conflict.
I think we can all be grateful that George W. Bush isn't around to trample international law and round up a posse of the willing to invade a Baathist-run country alleged to have WMD.
