UNHCR has announced that its registration activities for applicants for international protection in Turkey will end on 10 September 2018, as part of the transition of refugee status determination responsibility to the Turkish Directorate General for Migration Management (DGMM).
The UN agency was in charge of registering international protection applications by persons coming from countries other than Syria, with its implementing partner, ASAM, conducting registration in Ankara. Following registration with UNHCR, applicants for international protection were assigned to the province where they were required to reside, known as “satellite city”, and were instructed to appear before the competent Provincial Directorate for Migration Management (PDMM) to continue the procedure. A total of 63,039 asylum seekers were registered with UNHCR from January to July 2018.
Applications for international protection will now be directly registered with the PDMM, as is the case for Syrian refugees registering under Turkey’s temporary protection regime. Whereas the registration of applications for international protection can be conducted by PDMM across all 81 provinces of the country, applicants will only be allowed to reside in “satellite cities”. According to UNHCR, 19 provinces – including Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara – are currently excluded from the “satellite city” system.
For further information:
- UNHCR, Turkey: Strengthening a quality asylum system, August 2018
- AIDA, Country Report Turkey, 2017 Update, March 2018
*This information was first published by AIDA
This article appeared in the ECRE Weekly Bulletin . You can subscribe to the Weekly Bulletin here.