BEING A REFUGEE IS NOT A CRIME!
Rumeysa BOZDEMİR
İGAM Keçiören Information and Support Point Case Officer
June 24, 2019
According to data released by the United Nations there are currently around four million refugees in Turkey. 3.6 million refugees are Syrian citizens who are benefiting from a temporary protection status in Turkey. The remaining refugees, between 400,000 to 500,000, are from over 80 countries, predominately Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Somalia, who are demanding international protection in Turkey (1).
In other words, almost all of the four million refugees in Turkey have fled from non-Western countries. Currently we do not know know whether there are any refugees from European counties that are seeking asylum in Turkey. According to some claims, there are four or five European refugees that have received international protection in Turkey.
The Current State
According to the international refugee law, the reasons for the forced departure of refugees from their homes and countries include: persecution, war, internal disorder and threat to life. The Law No. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection, adopted by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in 2013, accepts a similar definition. However due to Turkey’s geographical constraints to the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1951 Convention, any citizen originating from a non-European country who seeks asylum does not receive refugee status.
Because of the international documents signed by Turkey any non-European citizen cannot receive refugee status in Turkey. Therefore there is no permanent solution to settle and integrate these people into Turkish society. Before the Syrian refugee crisis in 2011, the only permanent solution for non-European asylum seekers was to be placed in a third country by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
An endless waiting game!
The preamble of the Convention on the Status of Refugees emphasizes that the refugee issue is transnational, emphasising the need to solve this through international cooperation. The third-country resettlement system was established order to ensure a balanced distribution of the responsibility to provide a safe haven to refugees among all countries. However the main reasons for third country resettlement have been that either the country that the migrants sought asylum in fail to provide a safe environment, or as it is the case in Turkey, the country does not allow them to integrate into society.
(2) As a result of the Syrian crisis, the number of refugees in Turkey has increased and the possibility of resettlement to a third country has been reduced dramatically. Therefore refugees who apply for resettlement in the third country begin a waiting game with no definite duration or end.
It is possible to observe this frustration first hand among the refugees who come to the IGAM Refugee Information and Support Point in Keçiören. These are the some of the details from the 30-minute conversations that we have had with refugees that have been waiting to be resettled in a third country. These are stories about people who have survived here for years and their effort to build a future for their children.
“Me and my family have been sitting on hot coals for years!”
One of the Keçiören visitors expressed his experience about being a refugee or immigrant and the rights granted to them. The visitor (name known but not published) who is from Somalia has been waiting to be resettled to a third country for seven years. He says, “Being a refugee is not a crime”, describing what he experiences as psychological and emotional torture. “Me and my family have been on sitting on hot coals, since the day I called myself a refugee”. “I wanted to be resettled in a third country, if this is not possible I want to be able to build a new life in Turkey.” He has been in Turkey for seven years, but still he says he is unable to create life for him and his family. He says he is so grateful to Turkey for its support, but he still insists that he wants a future.
Another visitor has been living in Turkey for ten years, all this time waiting to resettle in a third country. He says he no longer has the strength to endure and if his efforts fail he will commit suicide. He mentioned that he has applied wherever possible, writing numerous petitions, he has reached out to several embassies but he has always received the same response: “ make your application and wait”.
Placement in third country
Less than 1% of the world's refugees are resettled in a third country. The placement in a third country is not presented as a right. It is considered a facilitative service provided only to those in need.
Only 0.5% of refugees in Turkey are given the opportunity to resettle in a third country that agrees to receive refugees for resettlement. The number of people accepted by the countries determines this ratio. These people include Syrian, Afghani, Iraqi, Iranian as well as other nationalities. In 2018, 6443 people from Turkey were placed in a third country. (4))
Waiting in “purgatory"!
Contrary to what is assumed, the number of resettlements to a third country and the conditions of acceptance is not related to the United Nations, Turkey or the migration administration, but is decided by the receiving countries. In other words, the process decided by the third countries' approach regarding “balanced sharing of responsibility” process. It is a well-known fact that there are many factors affecting the domestic and foreign policies of these countries.
The lives of those people who are born and die, as refugees, who are unable to make any plans for the future, and whose life is on hold in the processes, should be evaluated not just from statistical point of view. We need to take their deplorable stories into consideration too. Being resettled to a third country may not be a right, however it is the best solution to ensure people don’t live in constant in limbo: “being a refugee is not a crime.”
Note: according to the Geneva Convention signed in 1951, Turkey does not count migrants from outside the European borders as refugees. However, in this text the term refugee is also used to indicate those people that are fleeing from conditions that include escaping persecution and being in danger of their life.
https://www.unhcr.org/tr/turkiyedeki-multeciler-ve-siginmacilar
Türkiye’de Üçüncü Ülkeye Yerleştirme. (2018). https://www.unhcr.org/tr/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2018/12/Resettlement-Fact-Sheet-September-2018-TR.pdf
https://help.unhcr.org/turkey/tr/resettlement/
Türkiye’de Üçüncü Ülkeye Yerleştirme. (2018). https://www.unhcr.org/tr/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2018/12/Resettlement-Fact-Sheet-September-2018-TR.pdf
