World refugee day
20th June 2020 - World Refugee Day
The United Nations General Assembly marked June 20th as a World Refugee Day on the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, held on December 4th 2000. Every year since then many countries across the globe celebrate this day in solidarity with refugees.
The rapid escalation of violence, war, suppression and economic hardship and poverty across the world have pushed more and more people into seeking asylum and into migration. They are looking for safety and security and a better world to live in. According to the United Nations every minute twenty people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror.
According to the UNHCR there are more than 70 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. Almost 26 million of these people are refugees and 3.5 million are seeking asylum. Although there is no exact figure for the number of Iranian refugees and migrants who have left the country from fear of persecution, dictatorship, suppression or an extreme breach of their basic human rights, it is estimated that there could be up to 5 million Iranian refugees across the globe. Many of these people flee through Turkey and it is estimated that there are about 30 thousand Iranian asylum seekers living in Turkey.
Life for Iranian refugees in Turkey has never been easy or straightforward. There has always been enormous support from progressive parts of Turkish society and from democratic, human rights and labour organisations. Living as an asylum seeker in Turkey means living with the risk of being deported to Iran, being denied access to welfare and particularly to healthcare, destitution, exploitation and many other forms of abuse and stigmatisation.
All the above issues have contributed to an extreme vulnerability among Iranian refugees in Turkey. Meanwhile there has been no progress in UNHCR’s approach towards this vulnerable group. The emergence of Covid 19 has made this situation even worse. There is poverty and a lack of access to basic essential living needs among a large number of refugees.
The Turkish government and UNHCR have totally ignored this situation and in doing so have condemned these refugees to an inhuman and intolerable life in Turkey. In the past, Iranian refugees in Turkey were protected by the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees in Turkey. Since the transfer of almost all parts of their executive responsibilities to the Turkish government, thousands of refugees have been left confused, vulnerable and without hope. Since the escalation of tension over Syrian refugees in Turkey, with the United Stares and the European union on one side and the Turkish government on another, other refugees and asylum seekers have been totally forgotten and there is no sign of any progress.
The Solidarity Council of Iranian Refugees in Turkey calls on all refugee and human rights organisations, labour movements and all other progressive agencies and individuals to support the Solidarity Council of Iranian refugees in Turkey on the 20th anniversary of World Refugee Day to warn the UNHCR, the European Commission for Human Rights, Amnesty International and the Turkish Government about the dire situation of thousands of asylum seekers living in Turkey. We demand the following, in accordance with our rights as contained in the 1951 Convention.
1.Give immediate consideration to the transfer of Iranian refugees from Turkey to a third safe country.
2. An immediate review of the cases of thousands of asylum seekers and answers to their queries in a timely and responsive way.
3. Monitoring and responding to the fear imposed by the Turkish government by the deportation of Iranian asylum seekers to Iran, where they face abuse, imprisonment and torture. This in line with their right not to be expelled, except under certain, strictly defined conditions and not to be punished for illegal entry to Turkey.
4.A response to the destitution, lack of access to education, welfare and healthcare.
5. An investigation into the death of a number of asylum seekers who were
denied access to healthcare in Turkey.
6. UNHCR to take back responsibility for managing and dealing with various aspects of refugees’ cases and their life in Turkey
The Solidarity Council of Iranian Refugees in Turkey
June 2020
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