Detention in Turkey

last update: January 2012

If you are travelling through Turkey and do not apply for asylum, your application has been rejected, you don’t have a current “living permit”, or you have left the city that you have been assigned to without permission the police can imprison you, if they catch you. The police also detain people for “illegal entry” and exit.

There are prisons in the police stations and separate ones. Some are called removal centers. From here, the police will try to deport you back to your country or if you are near the border maybe push you back across the border illegally. If this is for some reason not possible for them, they will set you free after an uncertain length of time. There is no law which determines the length of imprisonment. Although it is illegal under international law, people are sometimes kept in prison for many months, even a year.

It is very difficult to make an asylum application with the UNHCR from inside the prison. It is known that the police try to deny your right to seek asylum by giving them wrong information or forcing people to sign deportation papers. Very often, the authorities do an “accelerated” process and decide about your asylum within 5 days, generally negatively.  You can also appeal against this decision, but the police shortens this to 2-15 days. In this case, it is very important to get in contact with Helsinki Citizens Assembly, Amnesty International, TIHV or Mülteci DER quickly. You must be quick otherwise the police will try to deport immediately.
A big problem is that the police regularly deny the imprisoned people to contact the UNHCR, a lawyer or solidarity organisations and do not provide translators. Until today, it is nearly impossible for lawyers or the UNHCR to get into the prisons.

! As always, be careful what you sign there. It is known, that the police can force you to sign a paper (in English) without explaining it to you: it is probably your deportation paper.

There are lots of reports of ill-treatment of people while in custody.
People travelling with money have been forced to hand it to the police forces.