Türkiye currently hosts a population of around 3,214,780 million refugees from neighbouring Syria[1] and 258,416 international protection applicants and status holders, most principally originating from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Ukraine among others[2]. These two populations of protection seekers are subject to two different sets of asylum rules and procedures. As such, the Turkish asylum system has a dual structure.
Türkiye maintains a geographical limitation to the 1951 Refugee Convention and only applies it to refugees originating from European countries. That said, in April 2013 Türkiye adopted a comprehensive, EU-inspired Law on Foreigners and International Protection (LFIP), which establishes a dedicated legal framework for asylum in Türkiye and affirms Türkiye’s obligations towards all persons in need of international protection, regardless of country of origin. According to the UNHCR, the European acquis in the field of asylum and migration is clearly visible in Turkish asylum legislation thanks to this reform.[3] The law also made the Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM) the agency responsible for migration and asylum, which conducts the status determination procedure. Toward the end of 2018 DGMM took over all tasks relating to international protection, while UNHCR and its implementing partner, the Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (SGDD-ASAM) – as it was called at that time, phased out of registration of international protection applicants. UNHCR maintains contact with the authorities and has a Host Country Agreement with Türkiye, which was signed in 2016 and entered into force on 1 July 2018.[4] As of 29 October 2021, DGMM became the Presidency of Migration Management (PMM).[5]
The LFIP provides three types of international protection status in accordance with Türkiye’s “geographical limitation” policy on the 1951 Refugee Convention.
- Persons who fall within the refugee definition of the 1951 Convention and come from a “European country of origin”[6] qualify for refugee status under LFIP, in full acknowledgment of Türkiye’s obligations under the 1951 Convention.
- Persons who fall within the refugee definition of the 1951 Convention but come from a so-called ‘non-European country of origin’ are instead offered conditional refugee status under LFIP. Conditional refugee status is a Turkish legal concept introduced by the LFIP for the purpose of differentiating in treatment between 1951 Convention-type refugees originating from ‘non-European’ states and those originating from ‘European’ states.
- Persons who do not fulfil the eligibility criteria for either refugee status or conditional refugee status but would however be subjected to death penalty or torture in country of origin if returned, or would be at “individualised risk of indiscriminate violence” due to situations or war or internal armed conflict, qualify for subsidiary protection status under LFIP. The Turkish legal status of subsidiary protection mirrors the subsidiary protection definition provided by the EU Qualification Directive.
For refugees from Syria, Türkiye implements a temporary protection regime, which grants beneficiaries a right of legal stay as well as some level of access to basic rights and services. The temporary protection status is acquired on a prima facie, group basis, to Syrian nationals and stateless Palestinians originating from Syria. PMM is the responsible authority for the registration and status decisions within the scope of the temporary protection regime, which is based on Article 91 LFIP and the Temporary Protection Regulation (TPR) of 22 October 2014.
In line with the legislative framework, this report is divided into two sections, the first on international protection and the second on temporary protection.
[1] PMM, Statistics, available here
[2] UNHCR Turkiye, 2024, available here
[3] 11.Report, ‘Long Road to Return II Durable Solutions for the Syrian Refugees in Türkiye,’ December 2019, available here p. 13. The information was obtained through an interview with UNHCR that took place in September 2019.
[4] UNHCR, ‘Türkiye: Operational Update 2018 Highlights’, available here
[5] Presidential Decree No 85 amending several presidential decrees, 29 October 2021, available in Turkish here
[6] For the purpose of “geographical limitation” with regards to the interpretation of the 1951 Convention, Government of Türkiye considers Council of Europe member states as ‘European countries of origin’.