Between asylum and protection refugees in Turkey
by
Recep Korkut*

Iranian asylum-seekers cannot earn refugee status in Turkey due its geographical reservation to the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees, and therefore, they are subjected to the practice of being sent to third countries. Iranian refugees in Turkey are involved in some of the asylum and protection procedures conducted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in cooperation with the Turkish authorities during their stay in Turkey. They have to fulfill certain criteria required for refugees so that they can be placed in third countries. Interviews with these asylum seekers are conducted, and those who cannot satisfy the basic refugee criteria -- fearing persecution due to his/her race, language, nationality, affiliation with a particular social group or political views or being afforded no protection by the country of citizenship -- are declined, and if the appeal process does not change this, they may be sent back to Iran.

Seeking refuge in Turkey and Iranians

In the early 1980s, Turkey emerged as a popular asylum country, and the flow of asylum seekers to Turkey was mostly related to repressive regimes, conflicts and emergent conditions following external interventions in Middle Eastern and neighboring countries. Iraqis who arrived in Turkey in groups after the Iran-Iraq war between 1980 and 1988 and after the Gulf crisis of 1991 formed the biggest asylum seeker group in Turkey, while the first refugees who came to Turkey en masse were the Iranians who fled to Turkey after Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979. Until the early 2000s, Iranians and Iraqis continued to form the biggest group of prospective refugees in Turkey. Today, there is a certain diversification in the countries of origin. In addition to those coming from the Middle East, there are asylum seekers from Asian countries such Afghanistan and Pakistan and African countries including Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia. Currently, while there are asylum seekers from 143 different ethnic groups of 50 countries in Turkey, Iranians and Iraqis still represent the largest group. Iraqis and people leaving other countries generally cite problems arising from conflicts in the country as their reasons, while Iranians generally seek refuge citing security reasons and protection from oppression.

In the past, Iranian asylum seekers who came to Turkey would frequently be sent back or returned to their country of origin due to security considerations or existing bilateral agreements. For instance, between 1993 and 1998, more than 2,000 Iranian asylum seekers were sent back, and many of them have been punished, sentenced or executed in Iran. These Iranians even included those who are members of the Baha’i faith, who would today receive categorically positive responses to their petitions. Currently, Iranian asylum seekers can still be sent back to Iran, which is still not considered a secure country, but this is restricted to those whose asylum petitions are declined or those who are caught before they file a petition and who cannot meet the legal requirements for staying in Turkey.

Iranians account for 22 percent of refugees in Turkey

According to the UNHCR statistics for 2010, about 4,500 of some 17,000 foreigners whose refugee status is recognized, who have applied for such status and who have objected to the refusal of the granting of such a status are from the Islamic Republic of Iran. In other words, Iranians account for approximately 22 percent of refugees in Turkey. Of all countries of origin, Iran ranks second after Iraq. Moreover, among some 3,000 Afghan refugees in Turkey are people who were born in Iran and came to Turkey to file an application for asylum after staying in Iran for many years. They are estimated to be around 500.

A vast majority of the asylum seekers who come to Turkey enter the country through legal means. Turkey does not require visas from Iranian citizens, and this certainly makes it easy for potential refugees to come to Turkey. Thus, the holders of Iranian passports can arrive in Turkey as tourists before filing applications for asylum. However, some Iranians have to escape from the country without much preparation or fail to obtain passports as they are being sought by the police, so they enter Turkey using forged passports or other illegal means, mainly crossing the borders in uncontrolled areas of mountainous terrain. Arriving in Turkey, Iranians may file their asylum petitions directly with the Turkish authorities, or they can sign up through the UNHCR. Iranian refugees are mainly sent to Anatolian cities, particularly Van, Kayseri, Aksaray, Nevşehir, Niğde, Ağrı and Kastamonu, and they stay there until they are placed in third countries. While the duration of their stay in Turkey varies between one and three years, the UNHCR applies an accelerated procedure for Iranian asylum seekers from the Baha’i faith.

Who comes from Iran?

Practitioners of the Baha’i faith, converts and Christians form the largest group among the Iranian asylum seekers in Turkey. Towards the end of 2008, there was an increase in the number of asylum seekers from this group because up until late 2008, Iran’s penal law did not provide for any penalty for people who convert to other religions. However, Iran started to sentence converts to death in late 2008. With the new Islamic Penal Law that introduced the death penalty for apostasy, alarm bells started to ring for converts, and particularly for the Baha’is. There are about 300,000 Baha’is in Iran, but the constitution of 1979 does not list them as a religious minority like Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians. Therefore, they cannot enjoy certain rights of citizenship, and they cannot benefit from the right to live in dignity conferred by Islam on the practitioners of other faiths.

More and more people started to flee Iran for political reasons after the 2009 elections. As the interest of the international community waned in the protests against the election results and the protests trickled to a stop, the government launched a series of operations, investigations, arrests, torture and disproportionate use of force, resulting in dissidents leaving Iran and flocking to Turkey from which to seek refuge in the US and Europe. It is expected that some 1,500 Iranian dissidents have fled to Turkey since June. Even if they file petitions for asylum citing their opposition to the administration, it was found that some of them really intended to settle in other countries with other motivations. In addition, the number of those leaving Iran because of their sexual orientation is gradually increasing as homosexuals represent a group that is highly vulnerable to execution in Iran. Kurds living near the common border with Turkey, numerous Azeri authors and reporters who advocate speaking Turkish, as well as Afghans who were born or lived in Iran are among the people fleeing to Turkey.

Turkey is more secure but can afford only limited protection

In Turkey, asylum seekers are given an equal footing with Turkish citizens from a legal perspective until they are sent to third countries. However, no sufficient protection is provided to them. There is only one camp in Yozgat assigned to those who are in an extremely sensitive position, but it can only house up to 100 refugees. Therefore, numerous refugees who are in need of protection and a safe environment are leading their lives at risk. Some asylum seekers note that they are threatened or monitored by Iranian intelligence in the cities where they live in Turkey. Also, it is known that some Iranian asylum seekers may occasionally disappear.

On the other hand, while there is a sufficient legal framework for access to the right of asylum, it is hard to say that human rights are duly respected in practice. In particular, those Iranian asylum seekers who are caught at border crossings or within a 50-kilometer perimeter of the border are deported even before filing a petition for asylum. Today, in Turkey, Iranian refugees may attain a securer environment, but they only get limited protection, and therefore, they have to lead their lives at risk, lacking legal support or welfare benefits with an uncertain future.

Iran has ‘dissident diaspora’ in West

Recently, Western media have been giving Iranian refugees in Turkey an opportunity to have their voices heard. While one of the reasons for this is that among the refugees in Turkey there is a higher number of journalists, writers and intellectuals who were forced to leave the country after participating in protests against the last presidential elections and with whom it is easier to communicate, the real reason is that Iranian dissidents who settled in the West organized and in a sense have developed into a dissident diaspora. Another reason stems from the fact that those who escaped to Turkey have become groups that are exploited by those who want to put pressure on Iran by way of refugees.

It should not be forgotten that while Iran, which has started to interpret every criticism as an attack from an enemy, may be able to ensure peace for a short time by taking harsh measures, those who escape from Iran bring the problem to international platforms and perpetuate it by engaging in opposition from abroad. This kind of uncompromising and tough solution will not get Iran anywhere. By driving itself into a dead end, Iran is once again laying the foundations for problems. It’s also likely that this political crisis will turn into a regime crisis in the future.

After all, Iranians leave their country out of fear of being tortured and seek asylum in Turkey for valid reasons. At a time when Turkey is attempting to change its immigration policies, it should remove the barriers that prevent refugees from obtaining the right of asylum and provide comprehensive protection to them. Protecting and providing decent living conditions for those who seek refuge is not only a requirement of being human but is also a requirement of international law and human rights, to which Turkey adheres. We all have a responsibility in protecting refugees, and we must not forget that every person is a potential refugee.