New report from the Refugee Support Program of hCa: "Unwelcome Guests: The Detention of Refugees in Turkey’s "Foreigners' Guesthouses" / April 2008
Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly - Refugee Advocacy and Support Program (hCa - RASP) released a recent report entitled "Unwelcome Guests: The Detention of Refugees in Turkey’s Foreigners Guesthouses." The report is based on interviews held between October 2006 and September 2007 with 40 refugees from 17 different countries who had been detained in ten “foreigners’ guesthouses” in Turkey.
“Because of the bad situation we were in, one of us tried to kill himself by banging his head against the wall… The police attacked him and beat him in front of us until he lost consciousness. There were several gendarmes who attacked him and hit him with their sticks and kicked him. Then they carried him to a bathroom and cleaned him.”
A Mauritanian refugee held in a detention facility near Ýzmir
These words are just one example of the many testimonies found in a recent report published by Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly - Refugee Advocacy and Support Program (hCa - RASP) entitled Unwelcome Guests: The Detention of Refugees in Turkey’s ‘Foreigners Guesthouses.’ The report is based on interviews held between October 2006 and September 2007 with 40 refugees from 17 different countries who had been detained in ten “foreigners’ guesthouses” in Turkey. Despite the name, these centers are places of detention, where, as the report discusses, refugees lack access to procedural rights and endure substandard conditions.
As hYd-RASP coordinator Özlem Dalkýran says “One of the most serious problems expressed by people we interviewed related to treatment by the police. Detainees reported examples of police ignoring their requests to apply for asylum or receive medical treatment, and in some cases, resorting to physical violence.” The gravest among these claims is said to have occurred on May 15, 2007, when allegedly, due to a fight that erupted in the Kýrklareli Gazi Osman Paþa Guesthouse, at least 8 people were severely beaten, and some were subject to falaka (beating of the soles of the feet). Other allegations include: severe restrictions on communication with family or advocates; overcrowding; unhygienic conditions; and a lack of drinking water or sufficient food.
Detainees also reported significant barriers to accessing asylum procedures. They described many examples of asylum applications that were not accepted or were lost. Foreign citizens held in “airport transit zones” are completely prohibited from making asylum claims and have no access to lawyers or the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. These problems filing asylum applications can lead to the deportation of legitimate refugees to countries where their lives are at risk.
Another significant problem highlighted by the report is the failure to inform refugees of the reason for their detention. Says Dalkýran, “Refugees held in the ‘guesthouses’ do not know why they are held or how long they will be held; they have no access to an effective judicial mechanism through which they can determine the legality of their detention. Since this uncertainty can persist for months, many refugees, who are often traumatized even before their detention, become depressed and hopeless.” Dalkýran added that except for cases where it is unavoidable, refugees should not be detained, and if they are, they should be informed of and accorded all their rights.
Notes Dalkýran, “Our report includes recommendations to bring Turkish practice regarding the detention of refugees into compliance with national legislation and international standards. If these recommendations are taken seriously, refugees who seek asylum in Turkey will not have to feel like ‘unwelcome guests.’”
Among the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly’s recommendations are that the government should ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture allowing independent monitoring of foreigners’ guesthouses, airport transit zones, and other places where refugees are detained; that Human Rights Committees at both municipal and provincial levels be permitted to monitor these facilities; and that the government should continue and intensify refugee rights trainings for police officers and other staff in foreigners’ guesthouses and police “foreigners’ departments.”
Note: Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly shared this report with the Bureau for Foreigners, Borders, and Asylum of the General Directorate of Security prior to its publication. The Bureau’s unofficial response states that the report “fails to distinguish between refugee/asylum seekers, illegal migrants and foreigners without legal status” and that “the accusations that foreigners held in detention were verbally and physically mistreated by officers in charge… and the inclusion and portrayal of these claims in the report are unacceptable.”
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