Swedish Foundation Grant Blocked at Customs

As Western grantmakers and local civil society organizations strive to get more aid to the southeast province of Batman where poverty, internal migration and lack of educational facilities compound problems for children, bureaucracy has stopped a recent grant made by the Swedish Olof Palme Foundation reaching the region.

According to a news report in the Batman Cagdas [Contemporary Batman] newspaper, a number of children's storybooks and over a dozen computers sent by the Foundation to the province have been stuck at Turkey's Kapikule Customs and their delivery now looks unlikely.

The Assistance and Solidarity Association for those Migrating (GOC DER) has failed to receive the 1,215 story books written in the Kurdish language and 15 computers sent for their distribution.

GOC DER Batman Chairman Ahmet Demir told Batman Cagdas that the shipment was being held in Edirne at the local customs for over a month now.

A news report on the issue in Batman Cagdas said "the GOC DER Batman branch has decided to abandon the grant. Demir has said that legally, the material stuck at customs could reach them after the Police and the Ministry of Education approve of it".

Demir added, "Our initiatives led to no results. Kapikule Customs will not approve of the books. Although Kurdish is not banned, we cannot get delivery of the grant books.

"Bureaucratic procedures are so difficult that we have ended up helpless. They are requiring us to allocate funds for the books we have not been delivered yet to be inspected. When we realized we couldn't cope with this situation, we wrote to customs for the books to be returned. (EZO/TK/II/YE)