Place of detention

The LFIP clearly differentiates between administrative detention for the purpose of removal and detention in the international protection procedure, which are governed by Articles 57 and 68 respectively. In practice, however, applicants for international protection are detained in Removal Centres.

Removal Centres

As of October 2023, there were 29 removal centres in 25 provinces with a total detention capacity of around 16,000 places. İzmir (Harmandalı), Kırklareli, Gaziantep, Erzurum, Kayseri and Van (Kurubaş) were initially established as Reception and Accommodation Centres for applicants for international protection under EU funding, prior to being re-purposed as Removal Centres (see Types of Accommodation). The facility located in Iğdır is listed as temporary Removal Centres. 8 more centres are planned to be built soon[1]. The Bayburt Removal Center with a capacity of 400 was opened on October 13, 2023, following the earthquake disaster on February 6, 2023, the Hatay removal center with a capacity of 190 was closed and remains close, and the Malatya temporary removal center with a capacity of 2,100 was converted into a temporary shelter for earthquake victims for a period.[2]

The locations and capacities of Removal Centres are listed as follows:

Source: PMM, Removal centres, available at: https://bit.ly/3rjWEhz & PMM, Faaliyet Raporu 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3LNM5uo.

Hatay removal center was heavily damaged and afterwards demolished. The removal center in Malatya was temporarily repurposed and serves as an accommodation facility for the earthquake victims. Adana removal center was also damaged by the earthquake, yet the facility is still operational as a detention facility[3].

In İstanbul, the Selimpaşa Removal Centre is for women, Binkılıç for men. These removal centres mostly accommodate ex-convicts or refugees involved in criminal cases. A removal centre was established in Tuzla for men with a capacity of 700. Previously, the center accommodated only Afghan nationals, but then various nationalities under administrative detention or judicial proceedings were accommodated, mainly people from Turkmenistan, Syria, Iran, Palestine, and Pakistan[4]. In the past years, deportation orders were issued for 9,946 foreigners, with 9,694 voluntarily returning to their countries from Tuzla. Iğdır, has become a centre where families are accommodated entirely with a capacity of 2.000, thus the needs for families such as hygiene materials and diapers have increased[5].

There are changes in the profiles of the people detained in the centres from time to time. While in previous years it was known that which groups or nationalities could be in which centres, in 2023 it has become difficult to keep track of this. They change profiles from time to time in the centres[6].

In 2023 the major problem faced by lawyers has remained as to determine the removal centre where the client is being held. PDMM does not share information on where the person is being held. Lawyers must proactively search for their clients in each removal centres, which may take to a couple of days.[7] Sometimes, due to the misspelling of the client names, lawyers might be misinformed about the presence of their clients in the centre. The number of transfers between the centres increased significantly in 2023. Uninformed, sudden transfers are happening form one centre to another centre in different cities. For example, it started to be seen that a group from Kayseri was put in a bus on the morning and transferred to Istanbul. The reason for these transfers is not fully known by the stakeholders[8]. This situation might violate their right to access legal representation (as lawyers do not always know their locations).[9]

In İstanbul refugees are generally not informed about their rights in removal centres except in Selimpaşa – the removal centre where women are kept, and where the administrators are trying to implement better practices. The administrators agreed to put some posters on the walls of Selimpaşa Removal Centre in different languages explaining the international/temporary protection procedures and ways to access them alongside the phone numbers of several NGOs.[10] A foreigner who was in a regular situation could be referred to the removal center in Tuzla or sent to police stations or gendarmerie stations, because of a lack of detailed ID check in the beginning of 2023[11]. However, after the Istanbul model, which became mobile migration points, still, there were some cases where regular migrants were sent to the removal centre due to not carrying their IDs[12]. Under a project implemented by IOM, information booklets, posters, and videos were prepared in 11 different languages to be used in the removal centres, to provide detailed information about their rights, including accessing to legal aid, the procedures to apply internation protection, the contact details of bar associations, and the function of removal centres[13]. However, there are still challenges to access the information regarding the international protection application procedures in the removal centres.

Airport holding facilities and police stations

There is a border facility for persons refused entry into Türkiye (“inadmissible passengers”) at international airports. These include İstanbul Airport, İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport, Ankara Esenboğa Airport and İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport (see Access at the airport).

The authorities generally do not consider holding in transit zones as a deprivation of liberty, although a Council of Europe report of 2016 refers to them acknowledging that persons held in such facilities are deprived of their liberty.[14] In the case of an Iranian with an execution warrant in Iran who obtained a residence permit in Mexico and previously resided in Türkiye, the individual was deported to Türkiye. The individual did not want to remain in the country and wished to seek asylum in another Latin American country. However, police in the transit zone made him access the ‘inadmissible passenger’ zone, and he has since been detained there against his will.[15]

Police stations can be used for short-term detention of up to 48 hours prior to a Removal Centre.[16] These are used in practice in provinces such as İstanbul and Izmir.

Unofficial detention facilities

For the last 6 years, stakeholders have been reporting a number of practices consisting of de facto detention of people in facilities (for more information, see AIDA 2020, 2021 and 2022 updates) e.g. sport halls in different provinces, without a detention order, prior to being transferred to a Removal Centre or to signing voluntary return documents. It is not clear whether these centres are managed by PMM or the Directorate General for Security Affairs. In 2023 the persistence of these practices was confirmed.

Ağrı and Iğdır: Irregular migrants are primarily detained at the border and detained at a police station or in a warehouse located in the Gendarmerie’s police park close to the border. Detained irregular migrants’ access to facilities such as toilets is problematic. Occasionally, detention exceeds 48 hours.[17]

İstanbul:  In İstanbul the Foreigners Branch in Pendik is used as an intermediate place to transfer third country nationals to the relevant removal centres and detention time exceeds 48 hours most of the time [18]. Foreign citizens involved in a legal case were kept at the police station until called by the PDMM. They were kept for 2-3 days, sometimes even 10 days, sometimes elderly people or people with health problems can be held[19]. It is also known another temporary accommodation centre in Istanbul Arnavutkoy[20], according to observation of some stakeholders, when a Syrian without registration or ID is identified by mobile migration points, they are referred to this centre before being transferred to other centres or removal centres[21]. In Arnavutköy police building, sometimes 30 people are held in a very small container, there is a hygiene problem, although there have been some improvements in 2023, the conditions are still not suitable, especially in cases where temporary holds are extended[22].

İzmir: In İzmir, attorneys report that three containers have been constructed in front of the removal centre to detain all apprehended irregular migrants under poor and unclean conditions, including families with children.[23] The Izmir Solidarity Platform with Refugees investigated claims that refugees were held in vacant and wedding areas managed by the Karaburun municipality, confirming these locations are used and noting the conditions violate basic human rights. Officers justify prolonged detentions due to delays caused by the Izmir Removal Centre[24]. In 2023, in Karaburun, on the roof of a venue with one toilet, a group of 50 people, including children were detained for more than 10 days without any phone to be able to reach out to lawyers[25], in Dikili migrants were kept in an enclosed place on the top of a hill, with only providing blanket and food. It is a common practice to hold the migrants in the yard of police or gendarme stations in Aydın, a group of migrants were kept in a basketball field until they were accepted to the removal centre[26]. Sometimes, the waiting period at the police station was exceeding 10-15 days, one of the reasons of these delays was lack of capacity to organise a swift transfer process, this situation seems to have improved recently[27].

Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Kilis, and Malatya: Syrians entering Türkiye are transferred to camps (temporary accommodation centres) as a result of a policy change implemented on 6 June 2022. This practice is based on article 8 of the TPR, which is essentially closed to judicial review. Admission to the temporary accommodation center is in the hands of PDMM, and PDMM is under no obligation to issue a rejection decision. Once rejected from accessing the camp, the only alternative for Syrians is to “voluntarily return” to Syria. Hence, the camps have become a new form of detention facility for Syrians Syrians who are either not registered under the temporary protection regime or have had their temporary protection status revoked. PMM has created a new form of ‘impunity’ without a transparent legal remedy. Syrians have no access to lawyers or their families from the camps. However, lawyers do have access to the camps. Individuals detained in the temporaray accommodation centres often face indefinite detention, unlike those in regular detention centres, which have a maximum detention period of up to 12 months. Immigration lawyers believe that the indefinite detention in these centres aims to hinder Syrians from appealing deportation decisions or to coerce them into signing voluntary return forms[28].  It is claimed that majority of Syrians who stay in Kilis and Nizip temporary accommodation centres are returned back to Syria, there are concerns among stakeholders about the voluntariness of these returns[29].

The first case was recorded in January 2023 in Gaziantep.[30] A group of lawyers from the Gaziantep Bar Association visited the Apaydin temporary accommodation centre in Hatay in response to a significant number of reports that Syrians detained in the Oguzeli removal centre in Gaziantep were coerced into signing voluntary return forms and then transferred to the temporary accommodation centre in Hatay. When the lawyers gained access to the Hatay camp and spoke with the subject Syrians, they learned that approximately 200 Syrians were transferred to the aforementioned accommodation centres on 12 January 2023, and that all of these Syrians have a deportation decision under judicial review before an administrative court and have been awaiting the court’s decision.[31] The lawyers described the conditions at the temporary accommodation facility as poor. The rooms were tiny, the centre was unfit for winter, there was no access to a shower, and people had to sleep on the floor. In addition, Syrians reported that they fear staying in the centre. They claimed that officers at the centre mistreated them and compelled them to sign certain documents. In addition, they were compelled to say on camera, “Yes, I want to go to Syria voluntarily”. They were beaten when they resisted.[32] In 2023, there were some ill-treatment incidents in Kilis[33].

When people are identified without an ID, they are taken to temporary accommodation centres (now called status referral centres) where fingerprints and security checks are conducted, and if there is no involvement in the case or YTS (foreign terrorist fighter), they are released. In 2023, stakeholders observe that those who are released from the centre, could access registration, some are given appointments, and some are waiting. Some of these temporary accommodation centres were also affected by the earthquakes[34].

As per the announcement, GÖKSEM (Referral Centres for Irregular Immigrants), initiated on December 8, 2023[35], aims to detain irregular immigrants apprehended by law enforcement until administrative procedures, including criminal interrogation and health checks, are completed. This centralised detention facility represents a heightened focus on immigration enforcement, reflecting the government’s prioritisation of security measures. Some stakeholders[36] evaluated this new decision as positive because now the migrants are kept in informal places such as police stations, and treatments are inconsistent from one place to another. Establishing one center which is equipped with trained staff, might solve some of the problems that arise due to the inconsistency and lack of proper facilities in such de-facto places.

[1] European Migration Law Blog, 17.01.2024, The EU support for alternatives to immigration detention in Türkiye: a curious case at odds with EU’s external migration policy, available here.

[2] PMM, Faaliyet Raporu 2023, available here.

[3] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2024.

[4] TIHEK, 02.05.2023, İSTANBUL TUZLA GERİ GÖNDERME MERKEZİ ZİYARET RAPORU, Rapor no: 2023/16, available here

[5] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2024.

[6] Information provided by stakeholders, March – April 2024.

[7] Information provided by stakeholders, May 2023, Information provided by stakeholders, March 2024.

[8] Information provided by stakeholder, March – April 2024.

[9] Information provided by stakeholders, March 2021, May 2023 and March – April 2024.

[10] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2021 and May 2023.

[11] Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi İnsan Haklarini İnceleme Komisyonu Göç Ve Uyum Alt Komisyonu Tutanaklari, 5 October 2023, available here

[12] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2024.

[13] Information provided by a stakeholder, Macrh 2024.

[14] Council of Europe Special Representative for Migration and Refugees, Report of the fact-finding visit to Türkiye, 10 August 2016, para IX.1(a).

[15] Information provided by a stakeholder, May 2023.

[16] Article 57(2) LFIP.

[17] Informatıon provided by stakeholders, May 2023 and March 2024.

[18] Information from a stakeholder, May 2022.

[19] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2024.

[20] Yenibirlik, 12.04.2024, Vali Gül, Arnavutköy Geçici Barınma Merkezi’ni ziyaret etti, available here

[21] Information provided by stakeholders, March 2024.

[22] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2024.

[23] Information provided by a stakeholder, May 2023.

[24] Evrensel Sayfalari, ‘İzmir Mülteci Dayanışma Platformu: Mülteciler insani olmayan koşullarda tutuluyor’, 2022 available in Turkish here

[25] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2024.

[26] Information provided by a stakeholder, March – April 2024.

[27] Information provided by a stakeholder, March – April 2024.

[28] Global Detentıon Project, Türkiye: Submission to the Committee against Torture, 12 June 2024, available here

[29] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2024.

[30] Information provided by a stakeholder, May 2023.

[31] Information provided by a stakeholder, May 2023.

[32] Information provided by a stakeholder, May 2023.

[33] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2024

[34] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2024.

[35] İçişleri Bakanımız Sayın Ali Yerlikaya İl Göç İdaresi Müdürleri Değerlendirme Toplantısında Konuştu, 16.01.2024, available here

[36] Information provided by stakeholders, March-April 2024.