Athens Intolerant to Immigrants, Ankara Too

Kilic's remarks come in wake of a September 21 statement made by Metin Corabatir, spokesman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where he said it was wide-spread practice both in Turkey and Greece to capture illegal immigrants in their territory and then by land or sea, return them back to the other country.

This "common practice" was first revealed last week in a September 20 news report in the mass circulation daily Hurriyet, based on aerial footage taken by a Turkish Coast Guard helicopter showing Greek Coast Guard boats entering Turkish waters on two separate occasions and leaving illegal immigrants caught in their own waters off the shores of Kusadasi and Ayvalik.

The Hurriyet report said the two specific incidents had taken place in July 2004 and May 2006 but implied this was part of a secret policy on which Ankara had contacted Athens and sent all the recorded material for inspection.

"If a person has arrived in the territorial waters of a country, that person is inside that country, it means the person has passed through the border gate" Kilic told bianet in an exclusive interview on the issue.

Stressing that Turkey's own priority was to bring out legislation in the form of an Asylum Law, Kilic noted that the government was less tolerant to asylum requests made after a person was apprehended.

"Why they come must be examined "

Taner Kilic says that according to refugee law, if a person has made an asylum request from a country, the asylum procedures need to be instigated.

"When a person enters the country (s)he should apply saying I have come with the intention of asylum. Those caught illegal are referred to as 'illegal fugitives'. But according to refugee law, even if these people have been apprehended, even if they have not applied for asylum, the reason for their presence in that country needs to be examined" Kilic said.

According to Kilic, if the person then is deemed to fall under any of the conditions described in the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention, in other words if it can be established that the person has been forced to leave a country due to race, religion, nationality, membership to a certain group or political views, the asylum procedure should start automatically.

A UNHCR February 2006 dated "Asylum in Turkey" briefing note refers to the issue directly. Says the note:

"The government's approach to illegal entry and presence or those who apply for asylum after being apprehended in order to protect themselves is that these applications are made with bad intent and is thus less tolerant."

If such immigrants are deemed not to be fit to be accepted as refugees, they are then accepted as "illegal immigrants" and where they have come from a country bordering Turkey, are returned to that country. But if they come from a country which has no borders with Turkey, such as Somalia, they can then be sent to that country by air.

But, says Kilic, this procedure has problems even though there is a combined fund in Europe to allow for the return of immigrants to their countries where there are no common borders with the country they have been caught in.

Another issue is also the treatment of the immigrants from the time they have been apprehended in one country to the time they are returned to another. An issue which involves a required respect to all basic human rights and which, in a recent report it issued on Turkey, the Committee to Prevent Torture (CPT) raised some issues.

No protection for the illegals

While protective mechanisms for human rights and refugee demands do exist on paper, people caught in the territorial waters of one country and then released into the territorial waters of another do not benefit from any of these procedures.

In reality, no coast guard authority has a right to release people caught in one's country to the territorial waters of another.

"But we have known this attitude and these practices for a long time" says Kilic, recalling deaths that occurred on the river Meric at the Turkish-Greek border.

Amnesty International had in October 2005 released a report on the discrimination of Greece against asylum seekers, immigrants and refugees and according to Kilic, that country has a long record in this field.

"Asylum procedures are not properly carried out in Greece" he explains. "According to the official figures in that country, the number of asylum requests accepted is 1 percent. There is no such ratio in the world. This shows that discrimination is an official policy".

Four points for a solution

Kilic believes that much can be done to correct the problem and lists four points as a solution.

Asylum process: "All the requirements of the asylum process should be put into force. The 1994 dated regulation was changed in January this year. While previously there was only a short period of 10 days for asylum seekers arriving in the country illegally to declare their asylum request, this has now been changed to say an application has to be made in a 'reasonable time' after arrival".

Border Police: "The greatest problem in practice is access to the asylum process. For instance in the East, people crossing in [into Turkey] from the mountains can be shot when assumed to be terrorists. On our borders we have soldiers instead of border police. These, on the other hand, frequently change. There is a need for a border police educated in human rights and refugee rights".

Observation: "The whole of this process needs to be monitored. There must be monitoring delegations in which civilian society organizations will be present".

Asylum Law: "Turkey urgently needs an asylum law. This law needs to be passed in accordance with the standards of international refugee law."

"The right to asylum is accepted as the most basic right in the UN Declaration on Human Rights. This should be referred to in the [Turkish] constitution. In Turkey's national action plan on this issue, the [asylum] law is promised in the medium term." (TK/II/YE)