Court ruling puts pressure on Turkey over refugee rights
A judgment this week against Turkey by the European Court of Human Rights over two Iranian refugees is likely to force Turkey to accelerate its efforts to regulate its policy on refugees, asylum seekers and migration.
Turkey imposes limitations on accepting asylum seekers based on their country of origin and refuses to grant asylum to people of non-European origin as refugees, but Turkey is one of the hot spots of refugees and asylum seekers. According to the Human Rights Research Association (IHAD), last month 2,618 refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants were detained for violating border regulations, and 378 were deported. Experts believe that some of these deportations constitute violations of universal human rights principles, as shown in the recent ruling of the European court regarding the two Iranian refugees, whom Turkey attempted to deport without reviewing their applications.
Özlem Dalkıran from the Helsinki Citizens Assembly (HYD) refugee support program told Today's Zaman that the recent case in the European court is actually an exemplary case that points out all of the shortcomings of Turkey's refugee policy.
“Although compared to a couple of years ago, the situation is relatively better. At least the media and society are able to understand the importance of the issue a little bit more, but Turkey has a long way to go,” she said.
A typical example
The European court announced in a press statement on Tuesday that it had ruled against Turkey on charges of trying to deport two Iranian nationals, Mohsen Abdolkhani and Hamid Karimnia, although they were recognized as refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
As members of the People's Mojahedin organization they left Iran and entered a refugee camp in Iraq. After the closure of the camp they came to Turkey, where they were arrested and deported to Iraq, but they immediately re-entered Turkey.
They were convicted of illegal entry into Turkey, and Turkish authorities attempted to deport them to Iran on June 28, 2008. Authorities were unsuccessful as the Iranian authorities refused their admission. The two asylum seekers requested temporary asylum but have yet to receive an answer.
“The Court was struck by the fact that both the administrative and judicial authorities had remained totally passive regarding the applicants' serious allegations of a risk of ill-treatment if returned to Iraq or Iran. Moreover, by failing to consider the applicants' requests for temporary asylum, to notify them of the reasons for not taking their asylum requests into consideration and to authorize them to have access to legal assistance (despite their explicit request for a lawyer) while in police detention in Muş, the national authorities had prevented the applicants from raising their allegations. What was more, the applicants could not even apply to the authorities for annulment of the decision to deport them as they had never been served with the deportation orders. Nor had they been notified of the reasons for their threatened removal from Turkey,” the European court statement indicated.
The European court also fined Turkey 20,000 euros for each applicant.
Speaking to Today's Zaman, Metin Çorabatır from the UNCHR office in Turkey said the decision is likely to set a precedent.
“Although the decision is related with the two applicants, there are 10 similar files in the court,” he said, adding that the shortcomings of Turkey's asylum system are reflected in the European court decision. “We are ready to help the Turkish government overcome these gaps,” he said.
Turkey is under the process of preparing a new legislation to address the issue of refugees and asylum seekers. Its civil society organizations like the Human Rights Association (İHD), Association for Solidarity with Refugees (MÜLTECİ-DER), Amnesty International and İHAD are also trying to form a platform for cooperation regarding the problems of refugees. Besides that, Turkey is under heavy pressure from the European Union to sign readmission agreements that will force it to take back refugees rejected by Europe after getting there through Turkey. European and Turkish officials will hold meetings in October to work out the technical details of a possible arrangement to this purpose.
Link to the article.
As members of the People's Mojahedin organization they left Iran and entered a refugee camp in Iraq. After the closure of the camp they came to Turkey, where they were arrested and deported to Iraq, but they immediately re-entered Turkey.
They were convicted of illegal entry into Turkey, and Turkish authorities attempted to deport them to Iran on June 28, 2008. Authorities were unsuccessful as the Iranian authorities refused their admission. The two asylum seekers requested temporary asylum but have yet to receive an answer.
“The Court was struck by the fact that both the administrative and judicial authorities had remained totally passive regarding the applicants' serious allegations of a risk of ill-treatment if returned to Iraq or Iran. Moreover, by failing to consider the applicants' requests for temporary asylum, to notify them of the reasons for not taking their asylum requests into consideration and to authorize them to have access to legal assistance (despite their explicit request for a lawyer) while in police detention in Muş, the national authorities had prevented the applicants from raising their allegations. What was more, the applicants could not even apply to the authorities for annulment of the decision to deport them as they had never been served with the deportation orders. Nor had they been notified of the reasons for their threatened removal from Turkey,” the European court statement indicated.
The European court also fined Turkey 20,000 euros for each applicant.
Speaking to Today's Zaman, Metin Çorabatır from the UNCHR office in Turkey said the decision is likely to set a precedent.
“Although the decision is related with the two applicants, there are 10 similar files in the court,” he said, adding that the shortcomings of Turkey's asylum system are reflected in the European court decision. “We are ready to help the Turkish government overcome these gaps,” he said.
Turkey is under the process of preparing a new legislation to address the issue of refugees and asylum seekers. Its civil society organizations like the Human Rights Association (İHD), Association for Solidarity with Refugees (MÜLTECİ-DER), Amnesty International and İHAD are also trying to form a platform for cooperation regarding the problems of refugees. Besides that, Turkey is under heavy pressure from the European Union to sign readmission agreements that will force it to take back refugees rejected by Europe after getting there through Turkey. European and Turkish officials will hold meetings in October to work out the technical details of a possible arrangement to this purpose.
Link to the article.
Update to the case of Abdolkhani and Karimnia v. Turkey: As of October 23, 2009, both men (Abdolkhani and Karimnia) were released by the Turkish government. They are free to live in Kirklareli City until they find third countries for resettlement. Karimnia (and wife) have been accepted by Sweden but Abdolkhani is still waiting for a country to accept him.
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