General (scope, grounds for accelerated procedure, time limits)
Article 79(1) LFIP lays down 7 grounds for referring an application to the accelerated procedure, where the applicant:
- Has not raised any issues pertinent to international protection when lodging an application;
- Has misled the authorities by presenting false documents or misleading information and documents, or by withholding information or documents that would have a negative impact on the decision;
- Has destroyed or disposed of his or her identity or travel document in bad faith in an attempt to prevent determination of his or her identity or nationality;
(ç) Has made an international protection application after being detained for the purpose of removal;
- Has applied for international protection solely for the purpose of preventing or postponing the execution of a removal decision;
- Poses a danger to public order or security, or has previously been deported from Türkiye on these grounds;
- Files a Subsequent Application after his previous application was considered implicitly withdrawn.
The examination of accelerated procedure criteria under Article 79 LFIP must be carried out by the PDMM during the Registration stage.[1]
In the handling of applications processed under the accelerated procedure the personal interview shall take place within 3 days of the application, and the decision shall be issued within 5 days of the personal interview.[2] Where this time limit cannot be complied with, the applicant may be taken off the accelerated procedure and referred to the regular procedure.[3]
As discussed in Detention of Asylum Seekers, Article 68 LFIP allows for the administrative detention of international protection applicants during the processing of their claim for up to 30 days. Technically, an applicant subject to the accelerated procedure may or may not be detained depending on the competent PDMM’s interpretation of the applicant’s circumstances against the detention grounds.
The accelerated procedure is applied in practice, for example in the case of persons detained in Removal Centres, although statistics are not publicly available.[4] According to NGOs and lawyers in the field, applications subject to accelerated procedures generally obey the time limits set out in the law. However, decisions have been taken without respecting the 8-day time limit.[5] In İzmir, in one case of an accelerated procedure, the applicant received the decision in 2019 after 5 years.[6] The procedures are also different from one PDMM to another. For instance, Adana PDMM follows an accelerated procedure for people in the removal centre in Adana. However, Ankara Akyurt removal centre follows the regular procedure.[7] Lawyers have expressed concerns that applicants are not informed of their right to access legal assistance.[8]
As regards the application of the accelerated procedure in the Marmara region, the 15-day period starts running from the date of the written notification to the applicants. However, legal aid lawyers are not informed of the notification and, legally, applicants are not notified either. They are often notified ‘verbally’. This unlawful notification practice at removal centres has been appealed, but in practice most appeals are usually rejected due to the fact that the time limit is not respected.[9]
In 2020 in İstanbul accelerated procedures and rejection decisions were issued to international protection applicants at the airport.[10] Rejection decisions were also granted through accelerated procedures by the PDMM where applications had been pending for a long time; reaching up to 6 months or 1 year in certain cases.[11]
In İzmir in 2021, an application of a person held in the transit zone was rejected through an accelerated procedure. The necessary conditions for the accelerated evaluation were not met, but objections to this were not examined by the court.[12]
Personal interview
Article 80(2) RFIP provides that the accelerated procedure “shall not prevent the application to be assessed in detail”. However, the assessment is not thorough and detailed in practice. Personal interviews of international protection applicants in Removal Centres are conducted by the Removal Centre officers and generally take 5-10 minutes.[13] Similar observations have been reported for interviews at the airport: cases of interviewers likely to ‘manipulate’ the applicant’s statements and try to conclude economic needs as the reason for their entry into Türkiye have been reported.
Appeal
There are several significant differences between appeals in the regular procedure and appeals in the accelerated procedure. Negative decisions under the accelerated procedure must be directly appealed at the competent Administrative Court. The application to the administrative court carries automatic suspensive effect.
Unlike in the Regular Procedure, the court must decide on the appeal within 15 days in appeals originating from the accelerated procedure. The decision by the Administrative Court is final. It cannot be appealed before a higher court.
Administrative Courts have examined cases in the accelerated procedure, in some cases annulling the first instance decision. For instance, in its ruling on an Iraqi woman who made her international protection application after 3 years after her entry into Türkiye, the Administrative Court of Ankara assessed that claims on gender-based violence of the applicant had not been sufficiently assessed and examined by the public authorities, and annulled the negative decision.[14] In a judgment from 2018, the Administrative Court annulled a first instance decision taken in the accelerated procedure concerning a man facing religious persecution in Iran.[15]
Legal assistance
The same rules as in the Regular Procedure apply. For an overview of difficulties encountered by applicants subject to accelerated procedure in detention when trying to access legal assistance services, see the section Legal Assistance for Review of Detention. In the past applicants in the accelerated procedure were not issued an International Protection Applicant Identification Card and their ability to issue a power of attorney was severely limited. However, after changes to Article 76(2) LFIP in December 2019 they can be now issued an identity document. It is too early to know how this will be applied in practice, particularly given the COVID-19 pandemic. The Administrative Court requires a power of attorney to be presented within 10 days; otherwise, it considers the appeal inadmissible.[16]
[1] Article 73 RFIP.
[2] Article 79(2) LFIP.
[3] Article 79(3) LFIP; Article 80(3) RFIP.
[4] Information provided by UNHCR, February 2019.
[5] Information provided by a stakeholder, February 2018.
[6] Information provided by a stakeholder in İzmir, March 2020.
[7] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2021.
[8] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2021.
[9] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2021.
[10] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2021.
[11] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2021.
[12] Information provided by a stakeholder, May 2022.
[13] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2018.
[14] 1st Administrative Court of Ankara, Decision 2017/3192, 29 December 2017.
[15] 1st Administrative Court of İzmir, Decision 2018/894, 22 October 2018.
[16] Information provided by a lawyer of the İstanbul Bar Association, February 2019.