Criteria and conditions

Türkiye

Country Report: Criteria and conditions Last updated: 14/07/23

Author

Independent

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 Türkiye 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.

The Türk Kızlay had received 110 requests for family reunification as of December 2022, but only 9 instances have been satisfactorily handled. They also provide family tracing and messaging services.  Only 8 of 238 family tracing requests were met, and only 33 of 119 family messaging requests were delivered successfully. Türk Kizilay initiated a fund-raising drive in 2022 to support their family reunification activities.[6]

 

 

 

[1]  Article 34(1) LFIP; Article 30(1)(d) RFIP.

[2] Article 35(1)(ç) LFIP.

[3]  Article 35(4) LFIP.

[4] Article 34 LFIP; Article 30 RFIP.

[5] Article 34(2) LFIP; Article 30(3) RFIP.

[6] Information provided by a stakeholder, June 2023.

Table of contents

  • Statistics
  • Overview of the legal framework
  • Overview of main changes since the previous report update
  • Introduction to the asylum context in Türkiye
  • Asylum Procedure
  • Reception Conditions
  • Detention of Asylum Seekers
  • Content of International Protection
  • Temporary Protection Regime
  • Content of Temporary Protection