Via ECRE – The NGO Refugees International has published a report entitled “I Am Only Looking for My Rights: Legal Employment Still Inaccessible to Refugees in Turkey”. Through a field research, refugees’ testimonies and an analysis of the applicable legal and policy provisions, the report examines the challenges and consequences that refugees face when they seek employment in Turkey. Continue reading The reality of legal employment to refugees in Turkey: lack of access and discrimination
The Evolution of Afghan Migration in Istanbul
By Yiğit Seyhan
For Afghan refugees, Turkey is seen either as a bridge to reach Europe or as a country of immigration in which they want to settle and join their friends and relatives. The continuation of war, conflict and poverty in Afghanistan pushes millions of them to seek a life in other countries. The beginning of Afghan immigration towards Turkey goes back to the first half of the 1980s. Turkish authorities initiated the settlement of a few thousand Afghan refugees with ‘Turkish origin and culture’, including Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Hazara origins. Turkey had already signed the Geneva Convention in 1951, but it still preserves the geographical limitation and thus does not give the refugee status to people coming from outside Europe. However, it also implements the 1934 Law on Settlement (İskan Kanunu) and uses the flexibility of this legal framework. According to this law, persons of Turkish ethnic descent and culture can immigrate, settle in Turkey and eventually receive Turkish citizenship. Such initiatives have contributed to the long-term settlement of Afghans in Turkey, and thus Turkey is perceived as a possible immigration country by Afghans. Continue reading The Evolution of Afghan Migration in Istanbul
Amnesty: Doors should be opened to refugees held on the islands
Via Evrensel (Report in Turkish) – Amnesty International launched a campaign to end the refugee policy that holds refugees on the Greek islands. Because of the “Readmission Agreement” signed between the European Union and Turkey, the refugees who have been kept on Greek islands since 20 months and have not been given any permission to cross into mainland Greece, are trying to shelter in tents. They are exposed to the hardship when it comes to accessing basic needs such as clean water and health care services. Amnesty International Refugee Rights Coordinator Volkan Görendağ states that Amnesty International is launching a campaign to make the Greek government end its policy on the islands and allow asylum seekers to move to mainland Greece.
Former police officer, wife, 2 children detained near Greek border
Via The Turkey Purge – A former police chief, identified as E.S., was detained along with his wife and two children while they were allegedly escaping to Greece. Former vice president of the intelligence department at Eskisehir Police Headquarters, E.S. and his family were stopped by gendarmerie in Edirne’s Ipsala district. Continue reading Former police officer, wife, 2 children detained near Greek border
Guideline booklets prepared for integration of Syrian students in Turkey
Via Hürriyet Daily News – The Education Ministry has prepared guideline booklets for Syrians under temporary protection status in Turkey to inform them about counseling services in order to facilitate students’ integration. Continue reading Guideline booklets prepared for integration of Syrian students in Turkey
4 children, 8 adults detained near Turkey’s Greek border
Via The Turkey Purge – At least 12 people were detained near Turkey’s Greek border in the western province of Edirne, according to state-run Anadolu news agency. Anadolu said Friday that gendarmerie stopped 12 people in a prohibited military zone in Yeni Karpuzlu neighborhood in Edirne.
The detainees were identified as A.S., a former public servant who was dismissed from the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK); A.S., a former public servant at the Ministry of Family and Social Policies; H.İ.İ, a former chemistry teacher dismissed from his/her job at a high school; E.I., an agricultural engineer dismissed from the District Directorate of Agriculture in Ankara’s Golbasi district; and S.K., a high school personnel. Continue reading 4 children, 8 adults detained near Turkey’s Greek border
Greece to accelerate the return of refugees to Turkey
Via T24 (Link in Turkish) – The Greek government is preparing a legislative amendment, which includes the assessment of asylum requests of asylum seekers in the country. This legislative amendment, which is due to be discussed in parliament next week, is supposed to speed up the returning of asylum seekers to Turkey.
Navigating complexity and contradiction: an interview with a Gambian businessman in Istanbul
By Helen Mackreath
Jahara Import-Export business is located in a Beyazit warehouse composed of roughly one hundred businesses, of which around ten are run by, or employ majority of, African workers from Senegal and Gambia. It is owned by Mehmud Kebbeh, a Gambian man who identifies as a migrant and a business-man.
I first met Mehmud as an interlocutor for a separate research project. As a British researcher our initial conversation encompassed discussions of some of his time spent in London and the relationship between our two countries, including the legacies of colonialism, as well as respective feelings about our “foreigner” status in Turkey. I spoke to him further to understand more about the warehouse as a space of transit, of multiple criss-crossing identities across nationality, class, gender, religion. Our conversation indicated multiple ways in which he navigates the overlaps between his business, religious and national identities; the importance of his import-export space as a social setting where migrants shed restrictive identifiers and share commonalities; and the multiple areas of hierarchy, exchange and isolation within the Gambian and Senegalese communities. Continue reading Navigating complexity and contradiction: an interview with a Gambian businessman in Istanbul
Greek gov’t aims to speed up migrant returns to Turkey
Via Ekathimerini – The Greek government is planning to amend a law governing the process of granting asylum to refugees next week! The aim is to accelerate the process of returning migrants to Turkey, which had been one of the goals of a deal that was struck last year between Ankara and the European Union but which is being inadequately enforced.
On Wednesday, Greece’s asylum service said its staff have processed 33,021 applications for asylum since March 2016, when the Turkey-EU deal was signed. The fact that rejected asylum claims are often appealed, and that reviews of those appeals take months, appears to be the main reason that thousands of applications remain pending, and thousands of migrants remain cooped up in state camps. Continue reading Greek gov’t aims to speed up migrant returns to Turkey
Joint Announcement by the Panhellenic Network of Antiracist and Solidarity Collectivities: Freedom to the 35 arrested at Moria
In Solidarity with the 35 people arrested after uprisings in Moria camp in July 2017, we repost this Joint Statement by the Panhellenic Network of Antiracist and Solidarity Collectivities:
“On 18/7/17 refugees and immigrants, victims of wars but also extreme poverty or persecutions in their countries, demonstrated in Moria, protesting for the failing to have their substantiated asylum claims examined, resulting in them being held in the infamous Lesvos hot spot for a very long time in which, indicatively, killed at least 5 people last winter, due to the unacceptable living conditions as well as the dozens of suicide attempts reported. Continue reading Joint Announcement by the Panhellenic Network of Antiracist and Solidarity Collectivities: Freedom to the 35 arrested at Moria