It is unacceptable for asylum seekers to be treated as detainees
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Izmir Refugee Platform made a press statement on the situation of asylum seekers in Karaburun. Meral Kaban read the press statement made in front of the old wedding hall of Karaburun Municipality.
Speak in full:
OUR OBSERVATION AND PRESS DISCLOSURE REGARDING THE REFUGEES IN KARABURUN
OUR OBSERVATIONS:
Upon the news in the press, together with the volunteers of the Izmir Refugee Solidarity Platform, of which 25 NGOs are a component, we came to the empty and derelict wedding hall of the Karaburun Municipality to make an on-site assessment and press release. During on-site detection, the venue in the news in the press was visited by our delegation. It was seen that there was a terrace at a height of 10 steps from the entrance, there were two toilets, a closed room and the terrace in front of them was open. It was observed that iron railings were made on a part of this terrace and that it could probably be covered to protect it from the sun. Some beds on one side and lots of BM. Blankets with their logos and some nylon covers were seen to spread on the floor. First, a person downstairs was interviewed. This person said that the asylum seekers had been coming for a while and stayed in the open area above, and then they were taken away.
We went to the cafe in the center of Karaburun. Karaburun Mayor Ilkay Girgin Erdogan, who was at a meeting here, was asked about this subject. He said that the people of the district also suffer from this situation, in fact, it would be appropriate for the refugees to be kept in more suitable places belonging to the Gendarmerie, but they were kept in this wedding hall belonging to the municipality, the conditions here were not humane, the iron railings were made by the Municipality so that these persons would not be under the sun, and they also supported hygiene. , however, he said that he did not have the authority and means in this regard, and that the addressee was the Immigration Administration.
Interview with the restaurateur who provides the food for the refugees. He said that they gave two meals a day for 20.00 TL, sometimes there were 20 people left, but they had to serve 350 people for two or three days. This event has been going on for 4 years, but in the last year, there is a backlog in the Removal Center of the Izmir Immigration Administration, because there is a shortage of space. Refugees who came to Turkey due to wars and massacres continue to head to the Aegean coasts to pass to the Greek islands. Karaburun district of Izmir is also one of the districts that refugees use as a route in their dangerous journeys, as it is at the crossing point to Greece by sea. Refugees, who were pushed back to the shores of Karaburun after crossing to Greece by boat, are kept under lock and key in the roof of the old municipal wedding hall. The prohibition of torture regulated in Article 17 of the Constitution is violated due to its conditions. Asylum seekers, including children, are treated as criminals in violation of the law and international conventions, and held in inhumane conditions.
Asylum is one of the basic human rights. We demand immediate renunciation of this arbitrary and unlawful treatment, immediate legal action against the Public Officials who caused this practice, and we inform the Public that we, as Izmir Refugee Solidarity Platform, of which 25 NGOs are a component, will follow the issue.
24.09.2022
Izmir Refugee Solidarity Platform
(Marksist.org)
