MESOP Arguments & Analysis : “No Safe Refuge: Asylum-Seekers & Refugees Denied Effective Protection in Turkey” (Amnesty International)

“This briefing focuses on people’s treatment within Turkey, and shows that — contrary to what is required under EU and international law — Turkey does not provide effective protection to the asylum-seekers and refugees on its territory. First, asylum-seekers do not have access to fair and efficient procedures for the determination of their status. Turkey’s two-year old asylum system is still in the process of being established, and is not capable of coping with individual applications made by hundreds of thousands of asylum- seekers.

Second, asylum-seekers and refugees do not have timely access to what are known as ‘durable solutions.’ The UN Refugee Agency — UNHCR — has identified three such solutions for addressing refugee crises: repatriation (when safe to do so) to countries of origin, integration in host countries, and resettlement to third countries. Because Turkey denies full refugee status to non-Europeans, and because the international community is failing to take a fair share of the world’s displaced people, asylum-seekers and refugees in Turkey do not have adequate access to either of the two relevant durable solutions. Third, asylum-seekers and refugees in Turkey are denied access to means of subsistence sufficient to maintain an adequate standard of living. With state authorities not meeting people’s basic needs — in particular shelter — combined with the significant barriers that people experience in achieving self-reliance, Turkey is not providing an environment where asylum-seekers and refugees can live in dignity. This briefing exposes as a fiction the assumption that Turkey is safe for asylum-seekers and refugees.”  Full text https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur44/3825/2016/en/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=*Mideast%20Brief