Foreign nationals detained under aliens legislation; (Read full CPT report)
25. One of the main objectives of the visit was to examine the measures taken by the Turkish authorities in the light of the recommendations made by the CPT in the report on the June 2015 ad hoc visit which focussed on the situation of foreign nationals detained under aliens legislation.
26. At the outset, the CPT wishes to acknowledge the particular challenges faced by the Turkish
authorities and place on record their very considerable efforts to host the largest number of refugees
worldwide, with more than three million Syrians and hundreds of thousands of nationals of other
countries (in particular Afghanistan and Iraq).
27. At the time of the June 2015 ad hoc visit, the responsibility for immigration detention was
still in the process of being transferred from the National Police to the Directorate General of
Migration Management (DGMM), a civilian agency under the Ministry of the Interior. This process
was completed in November 2015 with the replacement of all custodial police officers with DGMM
officials and private security staff in removal centres and the closure of all remaining immigration
detention facilities on police premises.
In this regard, the CPT welcomes the fact that several sub-standard detention facilities for
immigration detainees have been withdrawn from service and in particular the one at Ankara Police
Headquarters (in November 2015) as well as Istanbul-Kumkapı Removal Centre (in November 2016),
both of which had repeatedly been criticised by the Committee in previous visit reports, due to their
particularly poor detention conditions.18 Further, new holding facilities for foreign nationals have
been set up in the transit zone of Istanbul Atatürk Airport (see, however, the remarks made in paragraph 53). It is also positive that a policy decision has been taken by the DGMM to no longer
hold unaccompanied minors in removal centres. The delegation was informed that apprehended
foreign unaccompanied minors would always be promptly transferred to the Ministry of Family and
Social Policy and accommodated in an open juvenile institution. It is a particularly welcome development that, shortly after the 2017 visit, the Turkish authorities decided to close down the removal centre in Izmir-Işıkkent (see paragraphs 42 and 45).
28. The general legal framework governing the deprivation of liberty of foreign nationals under
aliens legislation is set out in Sections 57 to 59 of the 2013 Law No. 6458 on Foreigners and
International Protection (LFIP). These provisions have remained unchanged since the 2015 visit.
Section 57 of the LFIP stipulates that, whenever a foreign national is apprehended
by the police or gendarmerie on immigration-related grounds, the case must be immediately reported
to the relevant provincial governorate which must decide, within 48 hours, whether to issue an
expulsion order. In the affirmative, the provincial governorate must also take a decision as to whether
to impose administrative detention pending removal.20 Within 48 hours of the issuance of a detention
order, the foreign national concerned must be placed in a removal centre. Thus, the maximum period
of police custody under aliens legislation is 96 hours.
The duration of detention pending removal must not exceed six months; this period may
however be extended to a maximum of twelve months if the removal proceedings cannot be
completed due to the foreigner’s failure to co-operate or to provide correct information or documents
about his/her country of origin. Further, the duration of administrative detention of asylum-seekers
shall not exceed thirty days (Section 68, paragraph 5, of the LFIP).
29. Since the 2015 visit, an Implementing Regulation (No. 29656, dated 17 March 2016) on the LFIP has been issued by the Minister of the Interior, and several circulars have been issued by the Director General of the DGMM, namely the Circular setting out guidelines on the operation of removal centres (dated 18 February 2016) and two subsequent Circulars issued on 12 and 13 October 2016 on subsistence and visits to reception and removal centres. 30. The LFIP and the Implementing Regulation No. 29656 also contain a wide range of important safeguards for asylum-seekers and irregular migrants, including as regards immigration detention (for further details, see paragraph 70).
31. At the time of the visit, 22 removal centres (with an overall capacity of 8,136 places) were in
operation, accommodating a total of 5,030 foreign nationals (including 473 accompanied minors),
and 16 removal centres (with an additional official capacity of 7,200 places) were under construction
in different parts of the country. Further, the Turkish authorities indicated that there were plans to
close down all removal centres with an official capacity of less than 100 places.22 The CPT would
like to receive updated information on the implementation of these plans.
32. Before setting out in more detail the delegation’s findings, the CPT would like to raise some
issues of a more general nature.As indicated in paragraph 28, foreign nationals may be held in a law enforcement
establishment for up to a maximum of 96 hours, pending their transfer to a removal centre. That said,
at Istanbul-Fatih Police Station, the delegation found a number of instances in which foreign nationals
had been held in police custody for up to 15 days,23 and the delegation also received a number of
allegations of prolonged stays of immigration detainees in police custody in other law enforcement
establishments in different parts of the country.24 Regrettably, there was no custody register at
Istanbul-Fatih Police Station and several other police establishments in which the time and duration
of police custody of foreign nationals held under aliens legislation was recorded (see, in this regard,
paragraph 21).
What is more, a number of immigration detainees interviewed by the delegation claimed that,
prior to their admission to a removal centre, they had been held in an office of a police establishment
for several days on end, without being provided with a proper means of rest, let alone a mattress. A
senior police officer met by the delegation in Ankara acknowledged that such situations did
occasionally occur and explained this by the lack of an immigration detention facility in Ankara and
the slowness of the procedures to organise transportation to a removal centre in another province.
The CPT recommends that the Turkish authorities take immediate steps to ensure that
foreign nationals who have been detained under aliens legislation and are held in a law
enforcement establishment overnight are accommodated in designated holding facilities.
Further, the Committee recommends that foreign nationals in police custody against whom
an administrative detention order pending removal has been issued are always promptly
transferred to a removal centre, in accordance with the relevant legislation.
33. In 2016, several open reception centres for asylum-seekers, which had been constructed in
recent years with the financial support of the European Union, had been transformed into closed
removal centres. One might expect that such facilities generally offer even more favourable detention
conditions than removal centres which had been designed as closed institutions. However, the visit
to one of the “transformed” removal centres (i.e. Izmir-Harmandalı) brought to light that this was far
from being the case. As a matter of fact, many foreign nationals, including most families and children,
were held in the centre’s “high-security unit” (in Block 4B) and were subjected to a regime which
was far more restrictive than the one which is normally offered to prisoners in Turkish prisons (for
further details, see paragraphs 44 to 49). This paradoxical state of affairs was explained by
representatives of the DGMM with the fact that Izmir-Harmandalı and other establishments of the
same design suffered from major deficiencies in terms of perimeter security and that, following a
number of recent escapes, severe restrictions in terms of outdoor exercise and movement within the
establishment had been imposed on all detainees.
In the light of the above, the CPT recommends that the Turkish authorities review as a matter of priority the existing arrangements at Izmir-Harmandalı Removal Centre as well as in other removal centres of the same design, in order to provide all immigration detainees with a range of out-of-cell activities and outdoor exercise during the day, as was observed by the CPT in several removal centres visited in 2015 (i.e. Aydın, Edirne, Tekirdağ and Van).
34. According to the relevant legislation,27 foreign nationals may be subjected to an expulsion
order and hence be removed from the country if they are considered to pose a threat inter alia to public
health (unless they would not be able to receive treatment in the country to which they are to be
returned while undergoing treatment for a life threating health condition).
As indicated in paragraph 63, in all the removal centres visited, foreign nationals were usually
subjected to screening for various transmissible diseases (such as HIV, hepatitis A, B and C and
syphilis, but not tuberculosis) in the context of a medical control at a hospital, prior to their admission
to the removal centre. In this regard, the CPT is puzzled by the fact that a foreign national met by the
delegation in one of the removal centres visited had been subjected to an expulsion order inter alia
on account of his (inactive) hepatitis B infection. In the CPT’s view, such a health condition can
scarcely be considered to constitute a threat to public health.
The CPT would like to receive further clarification regarding the Turkish authorities’ policy and administrative practice in handling foreign nationals who are diagnosed with any of the above-mentioned diseases.
35. The delegation was informed by the DGMM that, in recent years, an increasing number of
foreign nationals classified as “foreign terrorist fighters” (FTF) had been detained under aliens
legislation,29 and that the management of this category of immigration detainees was posing particular
challenges. Foreign nationals were usually classified as FTF by the apprehending law enforcement
agency prior to their admission to a removal centre. As a matter of policy, they were accommodated
in separate parts of removal centres; on the basis of a risk assessment, some were also allowed to
associate or share accommodation with other immigration detainees. At the time of the visit, a number
of such detainees were being held at Izmir-Harmandalı and Işıkkent Removal Centres.
Representatives of the DGMM affirmed to the delegation that, in terms of activities and contacts with
the outside world, FTF would benefit from the same opportunities as other immigration detainees,
although their contacts with the outside would normally be monitored. However, the information
gathered during the visit suggests that there was a striking difference between theory and practice in
the two above-mentioned establishments visited. For further details, see paragraphs 45 and 78.
36. The delegation was also informed that the DGMM had recently concluded co-operation
agreements (Protocols) with the Turkish Red Crescent Society with a view to entrusting the latter
with an oversight function (including by carrying out unannounced visits to removal centres) and
with the Ministry of Justice regarding the provision of training for security staff working in removal
centres. Further, co-operation agreements were in process of being concluded with the Ministry of
National Education to provide education to children in removal centres and the Ministry of Health to
reinforce the provision of health care in removal centres. The CPT would like to receive updated
information on the implementation of the above-mentioned co-operation agreements.
37. In the course of the visit, the delegation visited three removal centres in Istanbul and Izmir
Provinces, as well as the two existing holding facilities for foreign nationals in the transit zone
of Istanbul Atatürk Airport (as regards the latter facilities, see paragraphs 52 to 56).
Binkılıç Removal Centre is located in a rural area some 80 km north-west of Istanbul
on former gendarmerie premises which have been converted into a detention facility (with an official
capacity of 120 places). The centre was opened in February 2017, and, at the time of the visit, it was
accommodating 31 male adult foreign nationals. According to the Turkish authorities, women and
families are never held in this establishment, and, in the case of prolonged detention, male
immigration detainees would be transferred to other removal centres.30
Izmir-Harmandalı Removal Centre was opened in June 2016 and has an official capacity
of 750 places. As already mentioned in paragraph 33, the establishment had initially been designed
as an open reception centre. At the time of the visit, it was accommodating a total of 117 foreign
nationals, including 76 male adults, 23 women and 18 children; about two-thirds of the foreign
nationals had spent more than four weeks in the Removal Centre at the time of the visit, the longest
periods of detention being eight months for one and six months for four others.31
Izmir-Işıkkent Removal Centre is located on the premises of a former factory building and was
already visited by the CPT in 2015.32 Since then, the official capacity has been reduced from 260 to
50 places, and, at the time of the visit, the Centre was primarily used for holding foreign nationals
considered to be FTF. At the time of the visit, it was accommodating a total of 45 immigration
detainees, including 25 male adults, eight women, and twelve children with their mothers.33 Four
foreign nationals had been held in the establishment for six to seven months, and nine children had
been present in the Centre for two months and had already been detained with their mothers for
periods of several weeks prior to their transfer to Işıkkent. The holding facility for passengers declared inadmissible in the transit zone of Istanbul Atatürk Airport has already been visited by the CPT twice (in 2009 and 2015). The facility comprises two holding rooms (one for male and one for female foreign nationals) and continues to be managed
by a private security company under the supervision of the Passport Police. At the time of the visit,
it was holding seven male and six female foreign nationals (all adults). The new holding facility for asylum-seekers in the transit zone of Istanbul Atatürk Airport (“Istanbul Provincial Immigration Directorate’s Atatürk Airport Guesthouse”) was opened in April 2016. The facility is administered by the DGMM and is used to accommodate foreign nationals who have applied for international protection. The facility has an official capacity of 48 places (22 for men and 26 for women and children). At the time of the visit, it was accommodating one male foreign
national; this person had arrived five days earlier.
