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Legal Violence Against Syrian Female Refugees in Turkey

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Abstract

Turkey hosts the world’s largest community of Syrians displaced by the ongoing armed conflict. The object of this article is to explore the damaging effects of a hostile legal context on female Syrian refugees in Turkey. I base my analysis on scholarship that theorises immigration legislation as a system of legal violence and I argue that the Temporary Protection Regulation and the Law on Foreigners and International Protection that govern the legal status of refugees in Turkey inflict legal violence on Syrian female refugees. This legislation keeps them in the regime of temporary protection and prevents their access to international protection. The temporary protection regime serves furthermore as the main determinant for other forms of legal violence inflicted by various actors. I explore the effects of the Turkish government’s inaction in terms of preventing and sanctioning the abuse of Syrian female refugees as unpaid sex and household workers. I show that the extended legal limbo on the conditions of employment of Syrian refugees secures female Syrians as the most precarious workforce for Turkey’s various sectors. Finally I claim that the forced confinement of Syrian beggars in refugee camps is instrumentalised for their disciplinary regulation.

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Notes

  1. Directive 2013/32/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on common procedures for granting and withdrawing international protection (Articles 35 and 38).

  2. Regulation No. 1994/6169 on the Procedures and Principles related to Possible Population Movements and Aliens Arriving in Turkey either as Individuals or in Groups Wishing to Seek Asylum either from Turkey or Requesting Residence Permission in order to Seek Asylum From Another Country, 19 January 1994.

  3. Article 1 B (1) of the 1951 Convention provides: “For the purposes of this Convention, the words ‘events occurring before 1 January 1951’ in Article 1, Section A, shall be understood to mean either (a) ‘events occurring in Europe before 1 January 1951’; or (b) ‘events occurring in Europe or elsewhere before 1 January 1951’, and each Contracting State shall make a declaration at the time of signature, ratification or accession, specifying which of these meanings it applies for the purposes of its obligations under this Convention.” Turkey adopted alternative (a), the geographical limitation. It has expressly maintained its declaration of geographical limitation upon acceding to the 1967 Protocol.

  4. Article 91 of the law stipulates that, “Temporary protection may be provided to foreigners who have been forced to leave their country, cannot return to the country that they have left, and have arrived at or crossed the borders of Turkey in a mass influx seeking immediate and temporary protection.” The second paragraph of the Article provides that, “the actions to be carried out for the reception of such foreigners into Turkey; their stay in Turkey and rights and obligations; their exit from Turkey; measures to be taken to prevent mass influxes; [and] determination of the duties and mandate of the central and provincial institutions shall be stipulated in a Directive to be issued by the Council of Ministers.”

  5. The EU Council Directive provides that temporary protection shall not prejudge recognition of refugee status under the Geneva Convention (Article 3). Article 17 of the directive provides the explicit guarantee of access to asylum procedures by beneficiaries of temporary protection.

  6. Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, CETS No: 210, Entered into force 1 August 2014.

  7. For example, see Article 3 (l) of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection and Article 3(1) of the Temporary Protection Regulation.

  8. Article 124 of the Civil Code provides that a 16-year-old child can be married under ‘special circumstances’ with court approval.

  9. Kavuncu, Mualla. (2015). The Sexual Abuse Inflicted to Syrian Refugee Girls in Turkey. Paper Presented at the 7th International Symposium, Antalya.

  10. According to these statistics, 3569 Syrian women married Turkish men in 2015. The number of ‘Syrian grooms’ are only 241 in the same year.

  11. Proposition for parliamentary inquiry by MP İdris Balüken, 16 June 2014; proposition for parliamentary inquiry by 22 MPs of the People’s Democratic Party, 28 January 2014; proposition for parliamentary inquiry by 29 MPs of the People’s Democratic Party, 13 June 2014.

  12. Written parliamentary question by MP Aylin Nazlıaka of the Republican People’s Party, No. 7/61688, 17 February 2015; written parliamentary question by MP Mülkiye Birtane of the People’s Democratic Party, No. 7/38907, 31 January 2014.

  13. Answer by Ayşenur Islam (Minister of Family and Social Policy) to the parliamentary question by MP Mülkiye Birtane (7/38907), 21 October 2014.

  14. According to an official study, 80 % of female Syrian refugees living outside the camps do not have sufficient food for the next week (Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority 2014, 63).

  15. Article 71 of the Labour Code prohibits the employment of children under the age of fifteen. Children aged between 15 and 18 may only be employed for light work that does not hinder their physical, mental and moral development, or their school attendance.

  16. Law on Misdemeanours, No. 5326, Article 33. The level of fine is determined every year and is currently set at 100 Turkish Lira. As a complementary sanction, the money collected by the beggar is also confiscated by the municipal authorities.

  17. The Ministry Directive No: 30 issued on 2 April 2013 is one of the first directives on that issue.

  18. See i.e. Directive by Kocaeli Governorship on “Syrian National Engaged in Beggary”, Directive No: 2014/6 Issued on 3 July 2014.

  19. See i.e. Directive by Mardin Governorship on “Principles on Fight Against Beggary”, Directive No: 2, Issued on 10 July 2015.

  20. According to Article 33 of the Regulation, persons under temporary protection have an obligation to reside in a determined city or temporary accommodation centre determined by the authorities, to inform the authorities about changes concerning their address, income or marital status, not to profit in an unlawful way from the services and the assistance provided by the authorities, and to comply with the other measures determined by the governorship and the Directorate General of Migration Management.

  21. Written parliamentary question by MP Pervin Buldan, No. 7/56532 3 December 2014.

  22. Case of Abdolkhani and Karimnia v. Turkey, Application No. 30471/08, Judgment 22 September 2009, Final 01 March 2010, para 127; Case Mogaddas Moghaddas v. Turkey, Application no. 46134/08, Judgment 15 February 2011, para 42.

  23. Case Abdolkhani and Karimnia v.Turkey, ibid, para 133.

  24. Ibid, para 135–142, Case Mogaddas, supra n 24, para 47–50.

  25. Case Mogaddas, ibid, para 43 and 48.

  26. Council of Europe, Commissioner for Human Rights, Report by Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, following his visit to Turkey on 28 June–3 July 2009, CommDH(2009)30, Strasbourg, 1 October 2009.

  27. Every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child's best interest not to do so (Article 37 c of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child).

  28. European Court of Human Rights the Court found that there had been a violation of Article 5 § 1 of the Convention in respect of the children kept in a closed centre designed for adults even though they were accompanied by their mother (Chamber Judgment Muskhadzhiyeva and others v. Belgium, Application No. 41442/07, 19 January 2010).

  29. In some cases, gendarmeries or police stations are used for detaining refugees and asylum seekers for quite long periods. This practice is condemned by the European Court of Human Rights as a violation of Article 3 (Case of Charahili v. Turkey, Application no. 46605/07, Judgment, 13 April 2010, para 76).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public International Law, Faculty of Political Sciences, Istanbul University, Gulhane, Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey

    Zeynep Kivilcim

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  1. Zeynep Kivilcim
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Correspondence to Zeynep Kivilcim.

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This article is dedicated to the 2212 Turkish Academics for Peace who are currently facing prosecution for terrorist propaganda for signing a petition for peace in Turkey.

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Kivilcim, Z. Legal Violence Against Syrian Female Refugees in Turkey. Fem Leg Stud 24, 193–214 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-016-9323-y

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