Detained international protection applicants must be given opportunity to meet with legal representatives, notary and UNHCR officials, if they wish so.[1] Persons who do not have the financial means to pay a lawyer are to be referred to the state-funded Legal Aid Scheme in connection with “judicial appeals” pertaining to any acts and decisions within the international protection procedure.[2]
However, the functioning of the Legal Aid Scheme in Türkiye requires the applicant to approach the bar association to make a formal request for legal aid. It remains very difficult for a detained asylum seeker to access the legal aid mechanism by him or herself, especially since the authorities do not provide information on the right to legal assistance in a language understood by the individual.[3] In most cases, either an NGO or UNHCR will alert the bar association and seek to ensure the appointment of a legal aid lawyer to the person. It is observed from the field that no NGO has direct access to Removal Centres for the purpose of providing legal assistance[4]. This is even impossible in practice if the applicant is classified as a foreign terrorist fighter.[5]
In practice[6], detainees’ access to legal representation and effective legal assistance and support are obstructed in various ways, which negatively affects their ability to appeal within the legal timeframe. Lawyers visiting the centres are often misled, being told that the detainee is not present, has been transferred to another centre, or that their case file is unavailable. Detainees typically do not have access to their personal phones and often cannot remember the contact numbers of their lawyers or family members.
The requirement of a notarised power of attorney poses an additional constraint (see Regular Procedure: Legal Assistance). Since detained asylum seekers are not issued an identification card before they have had the possibility to register with the PDMM, it is impossible for them to notarise a power of attorney.[7] Furthermore, issuing a power of attorney and interpretation entail financial costs, which vary depending on the distance of the Removal Centre and the language of the individual[8].
In 2018 the Administrative Court of Ankara held that access to legal counselling is a basic human right and should be granted to refugees without the requirement of a power of attorney.[9] Moreover, when a lawyer is appointed by a bar association to represent a person under the Legal Aid Scheme, the official appointment letter can serve as a temporary substitute in place of a notarised power of attorney. In practice, the courts accept representation of detained applicants under a legal aid appointment document without a power of attorney.[10] Unfortunately, by 2021, the judges changed and in Ankara power of attorney was again required to represent clients in appeals against deportation decisions. The court charged lawyers who could not present a power of attorney within the seven days and rejected the cases in the final decision.[11] The same implementation started in Izmir and Istanbul in 2023, the lawyers who do not have a power of attorney, procedural rejection is given, and all expenses are borne by the lawyer[12]. It is also observed by lawyers in Izmir that some notaries impose unofficial number restrictions or slow down power of attorney transactions[13].
In Van, officials in the administrative detention center are in charge of ‘deciding’ whether a person needs legal assistance or not. In 2023, while lawyers are appointed within the scope of UTBA in Van province, there are difficulties in appointments in Ağrı and Iğdır provinces[14]. For example, one stakeholder reported that a client was threatened after they sought legal assistance. Asylum-seekers seeking a lawyer’s help get discouraged and intimidated by officials. The period they spend in administrative detention is extended due to systematic pressure. Some clients refrain withdraw from legal assistance for this reason.[15]
In 2023, the suspension of the UTBA project for a period, often between October to March, directly affected lawyers working on refugee rights in the cities where UTBA project supports legal aid. This suspension had less effect on the activity of the Izmir Bar Association, as legal aid continued to appoint lawyers throughout this period.[16] Within the scope of the cooperation between UNHCR and TBB, legal aid requests of bar associations are sent through the online system, requests are evaluated by the joint commission. There is no detailed data regarding the legal aid requests from the removal centres, in June 2023 a total of 530 requests were received[17].
UNHCR continued to run several workshops with removal centres, PMM, and bar associations on issues such as lawyers’ problems, access to removal centres, and refugees’ access to legal aid. UNHCR and IOM supports removal centres with information provision for asylum seekers when they first come to removal centres.[18]
[1] Article 68(8) LFIP.
[2] Article 81(2) LFIP.
[3] Information provided by a lawyer of a Bar Association, February 2018; a lawyer of a Bar Association, February 2018; a lawyer of a Bar Association, February 2018, stakeholders, March – April 2024.
[4] Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2024.
[5] Information provided by a lawyer of a Bar Association, January 2018; a lawyer of a Bar Association, February 2018; a lawyer of a Bar Association, March 2018.
[6] Information provided by stakeholders, March – April 2024, Global Detention Project, Türkiye: Submission to the Committee against Torture, June 2024.
[7] İzmir Bar Association, İzmir Geri Gönderme Merkezlerinde Adalete Erişim Hakkı Çerçevesinde Yaşanan Sorunlar Raporu, July 2017, 18-19. See also Refugee Rights Türkiye, Barriers to the right to an effective legal remedy: The problem faced by refugees in Türkiye in granting power of attorney, February 2016, available here
[8] Information provided by stakeholders, March – April 2024
[9] Evrensel, ‘Yargı: Mülteciler vekaletnamesiz avukat hizmeti alabilir’, 20 January 2018, available in Turkish here.
[10] Information provided by a lawyer from a Bar Association, February 2019. See also District Court of Ankara, 10th Chamber, Decision 2017/1267, 20 December 2017.
[11] Information provided by a stakeholder, May 2022.
[12] Information provided by stakeholders, March – April 2024.
[13] Information provided by stakeholders, April 2024.
[14] Information provided by stakeholders, March 2024.
[15] Information provided by a stakeholder, May 2023.
[16] Information provided by stakeholders, March – April 2024.
[17] UNHCR, Güncel Faaliyetler Haziran 2023, available here
[18] UNHCR, ‘Türkiye Mayıs-Temmuz 2022’, 2022, available in Turkish here. & Information provided by a stakeholder, March 2024.