Family reunification is governed by Articles 34-35 LFIP. While the law allows refugees and subsidiary protection beneficiaries to be reunited with family members,[1] under preferential conditions compared to other foreigners, conditional refugees are excluded from family reunification altogether. That is also implied by the fact that international protection beneficiaries are not granted a Residence Permit, whereas the law requires the sponsor to have resided in Turkey for more than one year on a residence permit.[2] Refugees and subsidiary protection holders are expressly exempt from this condition, but conditional refugees are not.[3]
A refugee or beneficiary of subsidiary protection may reunite with the following family members:[4]
- Spouse, whereby only one spouse may benefit from family reunification in the case of polygamous marriages;[5]
- Minor children or minor children of the spouse;
- Dependent children or dependent children of the spouse.
As of January 2021, the Turkish Red Crescent had received 3,239 requests for family reunification in total. They also conduct family tracing and family messaging services.