Travelling through Turkey or Applying for Asylum

Travelling through Turkey or Applying for Asylum

Seeking Asylum: Legal Situation

If you are not from Europe and you want to apply for asylum in Turkey, you can only apply with the UNHCR, but you also have to register with the turkish police.

- If you come into the country with the officially necessary documentation, like passport or visa, (“legally”), then you go to the police in the place you staying, when you decide to seek asylum.

- If you have no papers and you want to seek asylum, you must apply at the nearest place to where you enter Turkey. There are only two UNHCR offices one in Van and one in Ankara. If you come through Van, you have to apply in Van. If you come through a different region, you have to apply in Ankara. However if the police catches you on the way, the police (1) might not believe you want to apply for asylum and try to deport you immediately or (2) they will send you back to the border and you have to apply there.

Procedure:

Generally everyone goes to register with the UNHCR first, but you also have to register with the police. Officially the police have to give you the permission to apply with the UNHCR. They will interview you about on your reasons and decide to give you permission to apply with the UNHCR or not. In reality they don’t give you a paper of anything, but they can try to prevent you from apply with the UNHCR. According to international law, the police must give you permission to apply with the UNHCR, but often they try to impede this.

Then you get a “living permit” (Ikamet) from the police. This costs around 306 TL per person and is only for 6 months. You will have to extend this “living permit” every six months as long as you are in the process of asylum or resettlement with the UNHCR. (This can take very long.)

After that the police will probably send you to a different city, they call “satellite city” (Van, Kayseri, Konya, Eskisehir, Ağri etc.) and you are forced to life there.

Application Process

Around 6 -12 months later the UNHCR will call you for an interview to explain your reasons to be accepted as a refugee.

! Note: the UNHCR (and the Turkish Police) - like most EU-countries - have a very narrow idea of what a refugee is. This is when you can prove to the UNHCR that you can’t return to your country because you fear prosecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. They do not accept economic reasons. If you say you are looking for a better life, they will most probably reject your application. So be careful what you say!

The UNHCR will first decide about your application for asylum (that can take another two years or so) and then, if positive, try to resettle you to a different country (like the USA, Canada, or Norway).

Resettlement

This resettlement process can take very long or be impossible. A lot of people do not get resettled at all.

The UNHCR very rarely tells the applicants how long their application will take. (Some people are known to have waited 6 years).

The UNHCR in Turkey resettles about 5000 people out of about 10 000 applications per year. Important criteria are if you are elderly, women, children, ill, if you have family in the respective resettlement country or have suffered violence or torture. It is also known that the Turkish Government obstructs the resettlement of recognized refugees.

Rejection of Your Application

If the UNHCR rejects your application, you should normally appeal within 15 days. If you are in prison the period for appeal is shortened, e.g. even to 2 days. If you don’t appeal, Turkey wants you to leave the country within 15 days, but in practice they usually take a long time to decide about this. Even if you didn’t appeal within those 15 days, it is possible for UNHCR to reopen your case even months later. So it is always good to try. Theoretically you also have the right to go to court, but it is very difficult to do so, generally the court will decide negatively. So you need good support and generally it doesn’t stop a deportation. However Helsinki Citizens Assembly has been successful with court cases at the European Court of Human Rights.

Very often the UNHCR doesn’t give reasons for the rejection. If this is the case, try and get access to these reasons. An organisation like Helsinki Citizens Assembly can help you.

Living Conditions in Turkey during your application process

· The police send you to a certain, so called “satellite” city (e.g. Van, Kayseri, Konya, Eskisehir) where you are forced to live. (There is theoretically a possibility to be transferred to a different city, but only in severe reasons e.g. medical reasons or to move to live with close relatives).

· You are forced to report to the police there, sometimes every day, sometimes once a week.

· You have to pay 306 TL per person for your living permit (Ikamet) every six months. (There is theoretically a possibility to be exempted from paying this fee, if you can prove that you don’t have money, but it is difficult to be accepted)

· The government does not provide housing. So you have to find this yourself.

· Generally, refugees do not get a work permit. You need a job offer to apply and the employer has to prove that it is impossible to find a turkish citizen for the job. This makes it nearly impossible to get a work permit. Working without a permit is common, but sometime difficult in the small cities.

· Generally, there is no financial help for health care and you are only allowed to seek treatment in the city you were assigned to. You can try to apply to the “Valilik” (regional governor), but it depends on where you are, and they don’t provide help to everyone. Some cities like Agri are known to be better than other cities e.g. Van. If you have no papers, it is also difficult to get treatment.

· If you have papers and live in the city assigned to you, children can receive primary education. If you don’t have papers it seems impossible.

· Neither the government nor the UNHCR gives any monetary help. Very rarely, if a refugee is in a very difficult situation, a partner of the UNHCR, called SGDD, can organise money.

Police/detention/“guesthouses”

If you are travelling through Turkey and do not apply for asylum, your application has been rejected, you don’t have a current “living permit”, or you have left the city that you have been assigned to without permission the police can imprison you, if they catch you. The police also detain people for “illegal entry” and exit.

There are prisons in the police stations and separate ones. Some are called “guesthouses”. From here, the police will try to deport you back to your country or if you are near the border maybe push you back across the border illegally. If this is for some reason not possible for them, they will set you free after an uncertain length of time. Although it is illegal under international law, people are sometime kept in prison for many months.

It is very difficult to make an asylum application with the UNHCR from inside the prison. It is known that the police try to deny your right to seek asylum by giving them wrong information or forcing people to sign deportation papers. Very often, the authorities do an “accelerated” process and decide about your asylum within 5 days, generally negatively. The police regularly deny the imprisoned people to contact the UNHCR, a lawyer or solidarity organisations and do not provide translators. Until today, it is nearly impossible for lawyers or the UNHCR to get into the prisons.

! As always, be careful what you sign there. It is known, that the police can force you to sign a paper (in English) without explaining it to you: it is probably your deportation paper.

There are lots of reports of ill-treatment of people while in custody.

People travelling with money have been forced to hand it to the police forces.

Refoulement/Deportation

If you have not applied for asylum (yet) or your application has been rejected and you don’t have a current “living permit” the police will probably try to deport you. This can be to your country or if you are at the border, to the country you have just come from (e.g. Iran, Iraq). It is known that the police denied entrance not only at the land border, but also at the airports. That means that the police regularly try to push people back into the country you have just come from without giving them the chance to seek for asylum. This is illegal, but they do it.

If your application for asylum was rejected and you didn’t appeal against the decision or your appeal was also rejected and you are still in the country (15 days later) then the police issue a deportation order. If you are in a region near the border this means they will try and deport you very soon.

The Helsinki Citizens Assembly has in some cases successfully managed to stop deportations by applying to the European Court of Human Rights. Although the police will deny you your right to contact a lawyer or any organisation, try to contact them.

If you have reached Greece and have been imprisoned there, the Greek police may try to push you back to Turkey illegally. It is known, that they bring people to a detention centre (prison) in the north of country and send them across the border to Turkey. It has been reported that the Turkish police takes their money and beats the people returned. These push backs are illegal. If this happens to you, you can also try and contact the Helsinki Citizens Assembly or the Solidarity Groups for help.

Travelling to Greece

From people who have been caught by the police in Greece, we know that the Greek Border Police can be very dangerous. If they find you they will take your money. If you have come by boat from Turkey, they might try to push you back to Turkey. It is known that they take away the oars of the boats, or make a hole in the boat.

Addresses:
UNHCR Birleşmiş Milletler Mülteciler Yüksek Komiserliği (BMMYK)
ANKARA Tiflis Cad. 552. Sok. No:3 Sancak Mah. 06550 Ankara Tel: 0312 409 70 00 Fax: 0312 441 21 73	VAN Istasyon Mahalle, Terminal 1. Sokak Hayirlar Caddesi 40/2 Van Tel: 0432 2155470 - 2143630 Fax: 0432 2148404
UNHCR Partner Organisation Association for Solidarity with Asylum-Seekers and Migrants (SGDD)
SGDD Ankara Headquarters Cinnah Caddesi 27/7 Çankaya - Ankara Tel: 0312 427 55 83 Fax: 0312 427 55 83 e-mail: sgdd@sgdd.org.tr http: www.sgdd.org.tr/	SGDD Kırşehir Representative Bayram Pehlivanlı, Social Worker Tel: 0505 765 6014 e-mail: pehlivanli.bayram@gmail.com
SGDD Aksaray Representative Mahmut Üçler, Social Worker Tel: 0506 3342152 e-mail: mahmutucler@gmail.com	SGDD Nevşehir Office Caddesi, Yaylaklı İşhanı, Kat:6 Nevşehir e-mail: serkan.paydak@gmail.com
SGDD Kayseri Office Gevher Nesibe Mah. Tekin Sok. Hukuk Plaza 6 / 17 Kocasinan - Kayseri Tel-Fax: 0352 222 62 15 e-mail: sgdd@sgdd.org.tr	SGDD Niğde Representative Recep Korkut, Social Worker Tel: 0506 5469142 e-mail: recepkorkut85@hotmail.com
Legal Advice Helsinki Citizens Assembly (Istanbul) Refugee Advocacy and Support Program Tomtom Mah. Kumbaraci Yokusu No:50/3 34433 Beyoglu - ISTANBUL Tel: 0 212 292 48 30 Fax: 0 212 292 48 33 E-mail: refugeeaid@hyd.org.tr	Humanitarian Aid Mülteci DER (Izmir) 871 Sokak No: 19 PK 96 Kızlarağası Hanı Hisarönü Konak / İZMİR Tel: (+90) 232 4835421 Web: www.multeci.org.tr Email: bilgi@multeci.org.tr
Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (Van) Turkiye Insan Haklari Vakfi (TIHV) Sığınmacı Projesi Ofisi-Van Hastane 2 Caddesi Göksoy İşmerkezi Kat:3 No:17 VAN Tel: +90 (432) 215 47 21 Fax: +90 (432) 215 47 24 e-mail: van@tihv.org.tr http: www.tihv.org.tr	Women’s Organisation Van Kadın Derneği (VAKAD) Sıhke Caddesi Yüzüncü Yıl İş Merkezi A Blok, Kat:2,No:49 VAN Tel: 0432 2149015 – 2144587 Fax:0432 2149015 Web: www.vakad.org E-mail: kadindernegi@gmail.com
Solidarity Organisations: Göçmen Dayanisma Aği, Istanbul http://www.gocmendayanisma.org/ bilgi@gocmendayanisma.org	Hudutsuz Dünya, Ankara http://hudutsuzdunya.blogspot.com hudutsuz.dunya@gmail.com