Refugee Woman Allegedly Tortured in Harmandalı Removal Center

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"They tried to forcibly extradite me. I said, 'My mother and father were killed before my eyes in my country, if you sent me there, they will kill me, too.' They didn't listen, continued to beat me. They spit on my face. They said, 'You stink, dirty African.'"

These are the words of a refugee woman we keep her identity secret on the grounds of safety. She stays at the Harmandalı Removal Center which has been the subject of allegations of rights violations over the past two years.

İzmir Bar Association Committee for Migration and Asylum last month received a notice about the acts of torture, discrimination and maltreatment in the removal center.

Lawyers Ayşegül Karpuz and Gizem Metindağ from the committee and Volkan Gültekin and Ufuk Göncü from the Human Rights Center of the bar association went to the removal center to talk to the woman.

Recording what the woman told into a minute, they filed a complaint at the Karşıyaka Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. The minute said, "Security officers scratched the women's wrists with their nails. Gendarmerie officers punched and slapped the woman in the car she was put into. Throughout the travel from İzmir to İstanbul, she was not given food.

"She resisted extradition by taking off her clothes at the plane in İstanbul. The pilot didn't take off for this reason. Thus she got away from extradition and sent back to İzmir Harmandalı removal Center."

The lawyers further said that the sister of the woman also witnessed traces of torture.

A forensic medical examination report taken from the Çiğli Regional Training Hospital was also attached to the petition of complaint. According to the report, there were traces of beating on the woman's back, right leg and left shoulder.

The medical report

Allegations on the parliamentary agenda

The allegations of rights violations at the removal center were brought to the parliamentary agenda multiple times. Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Van MP Bedia Özgökçe Ertan submitted a parliamentary inquiry into the claims in May 2017.

MP Murat Bakan from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) yesterday (July 18) directed a parliamentary question at Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu about the claims of torture against the African woman.

In May, eight lawyers and an interpreter were revealed to be prevented from conducting examinations at the removal center.

Removal center's record of violations

Lawyer Karpuz said that acts of torture at the center by gendarmerie and security officers were also recorded in a December 2018 report by the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey. She said that no improvements have been made at the center since then.

The report said that legal actions were taken against six incidents of torture. Saying that there is only one psychologist at the center, the report noted most of the people who stayed there were not even aware of there was a psychologist.

The report also noted that there had not been a criminal or disciplinary conducted against the officers who committed torture. (EMK/VK)