Administrative detention in the international protection procedure is permitted for up to 30 days.[1]
Pre-removal detention, on the other hand, may be ordered for 6 months, subject to the possibility of extension for another 6 months.[2] This extension is systematically applied in practice, especially for persons under a YTS-related code.[3] In one case, however, the 2nd Magistrates’ Court of Edirne quashed a detention order on the basis that detention for over 6 months exceeded reasonable time limits.[4]
In current practice, since the law allows for persons who register an international protection application to remain in pre-removal detention without a separate detention order under Article 68 LFIP (see Grounds for Detention),[5] lawyers and other experts are aware of several cases where the persons concerned were never communicated Article 68 detention orders and held in detention for more than 30 days while their asylum application was processed by the PDMM, in clear violation of the law.
Persons facing removal have to be transferred to a Removal Centre within 48 hours of the issuance of the detention order.[6] As the Constitutional Court clarified in its B.T. judgment in 2017, this means that a person can only be detained in a police station for a maximum of 48 hours before being transferred to a Removal Centre.[7] In provinces such as İstanbul and Hatay, detention exceeding the 48-hour deadline is a general practice, however.[8] There is a pre-removal centre at Pendik in İstanbul where the detention period can often be longer than 48 hours, sometimes as much as 20 or even 25 days.[9]
[1] Article 68(5) LFIP.
[2] Article 57(3) LFIP.
[3] Information provided by a lawyer of the İstanbul Bar Association, February 2019.
[4] 2nd Magistrates’ Court of Edirne, Decision 2018/2746, 3 July 2018.
[5] Article 96(7) RFIP.
[6] Article 57(2) LFIP.
[7] Constitutional Court, B.T., Decision 2014/15769, 30 November 2017, available at: https://bit.ly/2IWjuS0.
[8] Information provided by NGOs and lawyers, February 2019 and March 2020.
[9] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2020.