HRW: Türkiye pushes back refugees from Afghanistan

Photo: HRW

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

"Turkey is routinely pushing tens of thousands of Afghans back at its land border with Iran or deporting them directly to Afghanistan with little or no examination of their claims for international protection", Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 73-page report, "'No One Asked Me Why I Left Afghanistan,'" says that Turkey has stepped up pushbacks and deportations to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover there in August 2021.

"Registries and refugee claims not taken"

Human Rights Watch also found that Afghans inside Turkey are being blocked from registering for international protection and that Afghans facing imminent deportation are often given no opportunity to make refugee claims.

As of October 20, 2022, the Presidency of Migration Management in Turkey's Interior Ministry reported 238,448 "irregular migrants whose entrance to our country has been prevented" in 2022.

HRW wrote that most of them were Afghans.

44,768 deportations in 8 months

Turkey reported deporting 44,768 Afghans by air to Kabul in the first eight months of 2022, a 150 percent increase over the first eight months of 2021.

Shooting at the border

Human Rights Watch interviewed 68 Afghans, 38 of whom described 114 pushback incidents between January 2021 and April 2022.
All the men and boys travelling without female family members personally experienced or witnessed Turkish authorities beating or otherwise abusing them and others who were with them.

"Many also said that Turkish border authorities shot in their direction, sometimes at them, as they approached or attempted to cross the border.

A 25-year-old journalist from Paktia Province said, "I told them I was a journalist, that my life is at risk, and that I wanted to go to Europe not stay in Turkey, but they didn't listen to me," recalling his pushback experience on August 30, 2021, shortly after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. "They beat us with batons, and with the kind of iron stick that is used for construction."

"No EU member state should deny access to asylum"

Bill Frelick, director of Human Rights Watch's Refugee and Migrant Rights Division said in his letter addressed to the Minister of Interior of Türkiye that Türkiye "should immediately halt these routine pushbacks of Afghans from its borders and give all Afghans facing removal the opportunity to make refugee claims."

"No EU member state should deny access to asylum for Afghans or other nationals under the pretense that Turkey would be a safe third country for them. EU's migration management support to Turkey should be made conditional on demonstrated assurances that such support doesn't contribute to denying people their right to seek asylum or to returning them to places where their lives or freedom would be threatened."

Human Rigths Watch report also noted the following:

Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees of any country in the world, an estimated 3.9 million people, 3.6 million Syrians with temporary protection and 320,000 others, mostly Afghans.

In February 2022, Deputy Interior Minister Ismail Çataklı said registrations for international protection would not be accepted in Ankara, Istanbul, and 14 other provinces. In June, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced that from July 1, the proportion would be brought down to 20 percent and that 1,200 neighborhoods would be closed to registration.

You can reach the full report called "Noone Asked Me Why I left Afghanistan" from here. (AS/PE)