Unwelcome Guests: The Detention of Refugees in Turkey's "Foreigners' Guesthouses"'
As European countries bordering the Mediterranean have introduced increasingly harsh measures to stem the flow of irregular migration across their frontiers, Turkey has become one of the main crossroads for flows of migration from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East into Europe. At the same time, as part of Turkey's accession process, the European Union has stepped up pressure on Turkey to prevent the movement of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees into Europe. As a result of Turkey's efforts to limit irregular migration flows, thousands of foreign nationals without travel documents, refugees among them, are detained while attempting to either enter or exit the country illegally. They are primarily held in detention centres, which are officially referred to as "foreigners' guesthouses." Turkey's Ministry of Interior (MOI) severely limits access to detainees in these facilities by international and domestic NGOs and advocates. Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Turkey (HCA), a leading human rights NGO based in Istanbul, has provided legal aid to refugees since 2004 through its Refugee Advocacy and Support Program. Based on interviews conducted by HCA with forty refugees from seventeen countries, this report examines refugees' access to procedural rights in detention, as well as conditions in "foreigners' guesthouses." It identifies gaps between reported practice and standards of treatment set forth in Turkish legislation and international guidelines on detention. ; Alors que les pays européens riverains de la Méditerranée mettent en place des mesures de plus en plus sévères pour endiguer les flux de la migration irrégulière à travers leurs frontières, la Turquie devient l'un des principaux carrefours des flux migratoires vers l'Europe en provenance d'Afrique, d'Asie et du Moyen-Orient. Dans un même temps, dans le cadre du processus d'adhésion de la Turquie à l'Union européenne, cette dernière a intensifié la pression sur les autorités turques pour empêcher la circulation de migrants, demandeurs d'asile et réfugiés ...