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Turkey hosted about 9,900 refugees and asylum seekers in 2000. This included about 4,600 recognized refugees, comprised of 3,405 Iranians, 1,106 Iraqis, and 130 others. During the year, the government granted temporary asylum to 940 non-Europeans, mostly Iranians (838) and Iraqis (92). At year’s end, 3,440 asylum cases were pending with the Turkish authorities, mostly Iranians (2,494) and Iraqis (861). Another 634 Bosnian refugees and 286 Yugoslavs (mostly from Kosovo) were living in Turkey at year’s end.
These people, however, probably represented only a fraction of the foreigners residing in Turkey who have a well-founded fear of persecution in their home countries. Either because they were ineligible to meet procedural requirements, or because they feared rejection of their claims and deportation, many would-be asylum seekers appeared to prefer remaining in hiding, renewing nonimmigrant visas, or moving on to third countries, rather than coming forward with refugee claims.
By year’s end, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which runs a refugee determination procedure parallel to the government’s, had recognized 2,140 persons as refugees, of whom 1,357 were Iranians, 642 Iraqis, 60 Palestinians, and 44 Afghans. The remainder were mostly Somalis, Chinese, and Uzbeks. UNHCR regards all persons recognized under its mandate in Turkey as being in need of resettlement to other countries. About 2,000 cases were pending a UNHCR refugee status determination at year’s end.
UNHCR assisted in resettling 2,334 refugees from Turkey in 2000, up 27 percent from the 1,844 resettled from Turkey in 1999.
Between 400,000 and 1 million citizens of Turkey (overwhelmingly Kurds) were displaced within Turkey because of the conflict between Turkish military and security forces and the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey. Almost all had been displaced in previous years. Fewer than 50,000 were able to return to their homes in 2000.
About 23,500 Turkish nationals sought asylum in other European countries in 2000, nearly 9,000 of whom applied for asylum in Germany and almost 4,000 in the United Kingdom. This represented a 22 percent increase from the 19,220 asylum seekers from Turkey who applied for asylum in Europe in 1999.
Internal Displacement Internal displacement resulting from conflict and fear is part of a larger migratory phenomenon occurring in Turkey. Urban populations have grown dramatically throughout the country in recent years. Many migrants have a mix of political and economic motives, and have migrated based on varying degrees of coercion and choice. Undoubtedly, economic factors account for much of the urbanization. However, many economic migrants were forcibly displaced by the economic disruption in southeastern Turkey stemming from the protracted conflict.
Estimates of the numbers of displaced people vary widely. Some government officials deny that any people in Turkey are internally displaced. Some local nongovernmental organizations put the number of displaced persons as high as three million. In its human rights report for 2000, the U.S. Department of State said that “credible estimates” of internally displaced people in Turkey range as high as one million. By year’s end, the government appeared not to have updated its official figure for “evacuated persons” of about 336,000 at the end of 1999.
The government’s count of internal displacement includes only persons displaced as a result of village and hamlet evacuations; it does not include people who fled towns or cities in the southeast, or villagers who felt compelled to flee, for example, because of conflict with Village Guards (a Kurdish paramilitary group created by the government to oppose the Kurdish Workers’ Party, PKK, in the southeast), even if the village itself was not evacuated. Therefore, the figure based solely on evacuations must be regarded as below the baseline for an estimate of the number of internally displaced persons in Turkey.
The U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) therefore prefers a range of 400,000 to 1 million as reflecting evacuations and spontaneous movement, as well as displacement from the southeast to the central and western parts of Turkey and rural to urban movement within the southeast itself.
Although violence ebbed in 2000, returns of displaced people during the year appeared to be modest and sporadic, although returns did appear to increase toward year’s end. By mid-year, more than 50,000 families, representing an estimated 400,000 people, had applied for permission to return to their places of origin, but nearly two-thirds were ruled “inappropriate” applications, apparently because of continuing security concerns. By year’s end, fewer than 50,000 were believed to have returned to their places of origin.
The government’s return programs often involve a political loyalty test, such as agreement to participate in the Village Guards. In fact, many of the displaced fled their homes under threat from the Village Guards themselves or were forced to leave for refusing to join the Village Guards in the first place. The government’s organized return program appeared geared toward establishing heavily guarded and controlled “central villages” in the southeast. About 4,000 displaced persons were living in such central villages at year’s end.
Although fewer reports documented new displacement in 2000 than in past years, there were reports of would-be returnees being blocked from returning to their villages or prevented from farming or rebuilding in the vicinity of their villages. In the Lice District of Diyarbakir, 12 families reportedly returned to their hamlet, Akcapinar, from which they had been forcibly displaced in 1993. Five months later, on October 5, soldiers from the Lice Gendarme Command reportedly burned their homes, temporary shelters, and crops, and forced them out again. The villagers claimed that they had obtained permission to return from the local authorities. One of the villagers reportedly said, “The prime minister said that they would give assistance in the form of iron and cement for those who return. That’s why I returned to the village. I got help from neighboring villages and my relatives and built a house for myself…. I built my home because I trusted the prime minister, but they burned it.”
Despite the near absence of open armed conflict during the year, at the end of 2000, four southeastern provinces, Diyarbakir, Hakkari, Sirnak, and Tunceli, remained under a State of Emergency.
At year’s end, interest in return appeared to grow among the displaced. Therefore, the prospect seemed good for significant returns in 2001, assuming the security situation remains relatively calm. A press report quoted a 60-year-old displaced person from the Eruh District of Siirt Province, saying, “We’re going to make our preparations in our village. Let them just tell us that we can go back there, that’s all I ask. I’ve been forced to live here in Batman for the past six years. Only people who’ve been expelled like I have can understand what I’ve gone through.”
Asylum Procedures During the year, 4,625 persons, mostly Iranians and Iraqis, registered asylum claims with the Turkish police, down slightly from the 4,910 asylum applicants in 1999. The government granted 940 persons temporary asylum and rejected 181 during the year. This does not include cases not allowed into the asylum procedure for failure to meet procedural requirements.
In 1999, Turkey amended its 1994 asylum regulation (Regulation number 94/6169), extending from five days to ten the deadline for registering asylum claims with the authorities after arriving in the country. The amendment let stand, however, the requirement that undocumented asylum seekers register their claims with the police in the province where they entered the country. The amendment also introduced a right to appeal negative decisions.
In response to an inquiry from the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR), the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C. said, “In view of Turkey’s bid to join the European Union [EU], the pertinent laws and regulations in EU countries are being examined, training seminars are being held, and preparations are being made to enact any new legislation that my prove to be necessitated by our EU membership.” The Turkish embassy letter acknowledged several ongoing problems, including “the shortage of interpreters, particularly at border posts.” The embassy said that foreigners seeking refuge in Turkey “usually hide and/or destroy their ID cards/passports,” making it difficult to determine their country of origin, and that they often go directly to UNHCR or foreign embassies without first registering asylum claims with the Turkish authorities.
Turkey’s asylum regulations instruct local police near the borders to conduct interviews to determine if refugee claimants should be recognized officially as asylum seekers. Because Turkey retains the geographic limitation of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention to “events occurring in Europe,” it refuses to recognize non-Europeans as refugees. Therefore, the asylum regulations take a convoluted approach to defining the terms “refugee” and “asylum seeker.” Normally, an asylum seeker is considered to be a person claiming to be a refugee whose status has not yet been determined by an adjudicator. However, according to the Turkish regulations, the distinguishing feature between a refugee and an asylum seeker is whether or not the person in question is of European origin.
Generally, undocumented, non-European asylum seekers first present themselves to UNHCR offices in Ankara or border areas, where UNHCR interviews them, gives them a letter saying that they are asylum seekers on their way to lodge an asylum application with the Turkish authorities, and directs them to go to the police at the province where they entered the country. It is rare that asylum seekers register only with the police and do not first present themselves to UNHCR; such cases are limited to Europeans and Turkomans. Turkey recognized 16 Europeans, all from the Russian Federation, as refugees in 2000.
When an asylum seeker arrives at a police station, the formal asylum procedure begins. Local police conduct the asylum interview but do not make a status determination. They send the file to the Ministry of Interior (MOI) in Ankara, where it is reviewed and passed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs then asks UNHCR its opinion on the claim. (UNHCR does not actually see the police file; nor is UNHCR present during the police interviews.)
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs then makes a recommendation to the MOI, which informs the police whether the claim has been granted or denied. If granted “temporary asylum seeker status,” the recognized non-European is given a six-month residence permit, sent to a satellite city, and directed to UNHCR to be considered for UNHCR recognition (if not already recognized), and resettlement to another country.
The government’s asylum approval rate in 2000 was 84 percent of cases adjudicated; in its parallel procedure, UNHCR’s approval rate during the year was 42 percent. The Turkish authorities recognized 96.5 percent of Iranians as refugees; UNHCR recognized 49 percent of Iranian claimants as refugees. The Turkish authorities had a 41 percent approval rate for Iraqis; UNHCR’s refugee recognition rate for Iraqis was 25 percent. Turkey had a 36 percent approval rate for other nationalities; in contrast, UNHCR recognized other nationalities at a 27 percent rate during the year.
If denied, the applicant has 15 days to appeal the decision or leave the country. The appeal is also decided by the MOI, although by a higher official. In practice, UNHCR and the Turkish authorities rarely disagree on refugee recognition.
When an asylum seeker receives a deportation order, UNHCR assigns a high priority to completing its determination of the person’s refugee status. If UNHCR recognizes a refugee slated for deportation, it writes a “letter of support” calling upon the MOI to suspend the deportation order.
Turkish administrative courts have intervened in several cases involving asylum seekers who failed to meet the deadline, and have enjoined the police from removing those persons. These cases cite Turkey’s international obligations not to return refugees to persecution. In some cases, after the courts have suspended deportations, the MOI has allowed asylum seekers who had failed to meet the ten-day filing deadline to enter the asylum procedure. In other cases, the MOI has appealed administrative court decisions to the Council of State, the highest administrative court. In 2000, the Council of State ruled in two cases that failure to meet procedural requirements, such as time limits, had no bearing on refugee status.
Restrictive Measures Since 1994, UNHCR has noted a steady decline in the number of recorded cases of Turkey’s refoulement of Iranian and Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers. In 2000, UNHCR documented the refoulement of 4 refugees and 21 asylum seekers, of whom 2 were Iranian refugees and 19 Iranian asylum seekers. In 1999, UNHCR recorded the refoulement of 46 asylum seekers, and, in 1998, UNHCR documented 64 cases of refoulement, including 15 refugees and 49 asylum seekers.
These statistics are deceptive, however. UNHCR’s documentation of refoulement focuses exclusively on people who have been able to file claims with its office. It is unknown how many people apprehended at borders who might be seeking asylum from persecution are never given an opportunity to file a claim. In effect, only those asylum seekers who manage to evade capture and approach a UNHCR office are able to pursue their asylum claims with the authorities. The rest, particularly if apprehended in the border area, are summarily deported.
Throughout the year, Turkish border authorities apprehended, detained, and deported foreigners attempting to transit through Turkey to Greece and other European countries. In 2000, the government reported apprehending about 95,000 people attempting to cross its borders without proper documents. They came from a wide range of countries, including Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
Apprehensions of migrants attempting unauthorized entry into Turkey from Iran and Iraq were often not reported because of the remoteness of those borders, the lack of access for journalists and independent monitors, and the high military and police presence there. Nevertheless, there were several reports of serious abuses in the border region.
Generally, all deportations were to bordering countries, including of foreigners coming from countries farther away, who generally were deported to the country from which they entered Turkey. Only foreigners with travel documents are deported directly to noncontiguous home countries. Iraqis and Iranians are deported directly to their home countries. Foreigners apprehended in large groups were rarely allowed to apply for asylum, although some individuals were able to seek asylum following apprehension, according to UNHCR.
At least 11 migrants were shot and killed attempting to cross the Turkish border in 2000, and at least eight were injured. Among the victims were Afghans, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Iranians.
During the year, USCR wrote to the Turkish authorities on several occasions (in May, July, and November) to inquire about separate incidents involving Turkish border guards reportedly shooting and killing persons crossing the border. In its November letter, in response to an incident allegedly involving Turkish border guards opening fire on a group of 17 migrants, killing two (an Iranian and a Bangladeshi) and injuring three, USCR wrote, “As we stated in our previous letters, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights maintains that ‘everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.’ This includes the right for people to make an asylum claim, a right that should have been extended to the 17 migrants attempting to cross the Turkish border from Iran. Needless to say, the Universal Declaration also guarantees the right to life.”
USCR called for an investigation of these incidents and urged the Turkish government to “take the necessary action to prevent these repeated incidents from occurring.”
In July, the Turkish press reported that Iranians traveling to Turkey on tourist visas were newly being required to show that they had the equivalent of $1,000 in cash or in a Turkish bank. For some long-stayers who have been able to renew their tourist visas by crossing in and out of the country every three months, this new requirement reportedly was a cause of concern. It was unclear, however, how consistently it was being implemented and what, if any, effect it had on de facto refugees attempting to retain legal nonimmigrant status rather than seek formal refugee recognition.
At about the same time that the government announced that Iranian tourists needed to have cash on hand or in the bank, it also, in practice, began to ease its interpretation about the eligibility of persons who had made multiple exits and entries into Turkey to apply for asylum. Until the summer of 2000, the Turkish authorities interpreted multiple exits and entries as violating the procedural requirement to file an asylum claim within ten days of entering the country. However, starting in mid-2000, the authorities no longer appeared to be denying multiple-entry refugee claimants access to the asylum procedure.
Accommodations Most non-European refugees and asylum seekers in Turkey are concentrated in three areas: Ankara and its satellite towns; Silopi, on the border with Iraq; and Agri and Van, near the Iranian border. UNHCR has no direct involvement in sheltering refugees and asylum seekers, but provides financial assistance to recognized refugees in need or to asylum seekers who meet UNHCR’s assistance criteria. UNHCR has generally set a higher priority for its financial assistance resources in border towns in order to encourage compliance with Turkish regulations and to discourage the authorities from deporting indigent asylum seekers from border areas.
Those staying in and around Ankara live in slums, where many internally displaced persons also live in impoverished conditions. Generally, persons whom both UNHCR and the government recognize as refugees are permitted to reside in the satellite cities pending their resettlement. In general, they live in hotels. Some, who need more secure protection in Turkey, are sheltered in “refugee shelters” (Mülteci Misafirhanesi), funded by the Ministry of Interior. UNHCR has established field offices both in Silopi (since 1991) and Agri (since mid-1995). Refugees in Silopi generally reside in mud-brick houses without electricity or running water with only minimum humanitarian aid. Refugees and asylum seekers are not permitted to work, but their children are allowed to attend primary school.
The Kirklareli camp, which has been used through much of the 1990s to accommodate refugees from the Balkans, still held 74 Bosnian refugees in 2000, mostly from Republika Srpska, and 42 Kosovars, none of whom were ethnic Albanians (most were Ashkalis—a “gypsy” minority, most of whom claimed to be of Turkish origin). Most Bosnian and Yugoslav refugees in Turkey were living independently in Istanbul during the year.
Resettlement The only durable solution for recognized Iraqi and Iranian refugees is resettlement to a third country. In 2000, 2,334 refugees were resettled, including 1,980 Iranians, 323 Iraqis, and 31 others. The principal resettlement countries were the United States (951), Canada (666), Australia (318), and Finland (162).
Even though UNHCR recognizes someone as a refugee and another country expresses a willingness to resettle that person, the Turkish authorities refuse to allow refugees to resettle who have not met the filing requirements, in particular, the ten-day deadline to submit applications after entry. In response to an inquiry from USCR, the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C. said, “Problems arise for issuing exit visas for foreigners who are not registered with the local authorities and do not have residence permits in Turkey.”
About 2,140 recognized refugees were awaiting resettlement at year’s end.
Repatriation of Turkish Kurds from Iraq The 263 Kurdish refugees who repatriated from northern Iraq in 2000 more than doubled the 108 who repatriated in 1999, but was still only about one-third the number of refugees who repatriated in 1998. About 2,200 Turkish Kurds have returned since November 1995.
Although the government has not extended an amnesty to the Kurdish refugees who fled in 1994, it has said that it would not prosecute them for illegal departure from Turkey. Some returnees have been arrested upon return, mostly charged with membership in (or support of) an illegal organization.
Upon the returnees’ arrival, the Turkish authorities bring them to the “Haji” camp in Silopi, where they are registered and undergo security clearances. Nearly 90 percent of the returnees originate in the war-torn southeastern provinces of Sirnak and Hakkari, where many of their former villages are destroyed or still sealed off for security reasons. If unable to return to their places of origin, the returnees join the ranks of the internally displaced, usually living with relatives. Although returnees are eligible to apply for housing allowances and other assistance, UNHCR reported that assistance levels generally were not sufficient in 2000. During the year, UNHCR provided emergency aid packages containing household items and two months of food to all returnees upon entering Turkey. Because of the war devastation and economic stagnation in the southeast, few returnees were able to find work upon return.
Despite UNHCR’s request that the government delay calling returnees to military service until they have had a chance to settle in, the authorities have often required returnees to fulfill their military obligations within a few days of arrival.
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