Rejection of Asylum Cases by Turkish Government that Were Previously Approved by the United Nations
Many asylum cases that were previously approved by the United Nations are now being rejected by the Turkish government.
Although Turkey is a Muslim-majority country, it has become a refuge for many families, young people, single women, and individuals persecuted and oppressed by the Islamic Republic regime. Besides the people of Afghanistan and Syria, it has also accepted many Iranians. Over the past 5 years, all refugee cases were reviewed and approved by the United Nations, and then the cases were examined for transfer to a third country, after which they were transferred to their destination country. However, since 2018, all cases have been referred to the Turkish Immigration Office, and the final decision regarding the stay of refugees and processing of their cases has been placed in the hands of the immigration authority.
Homa is one of the women living in Turkey with her two children, aged 20 and 13. She was persecuted by the regime’s forces in 1392 due to her change of religion and was forced to flee to Turkey. According to Homa’s statements, she had a company in Iran and was in good financial condition, but when she was persecuted for changing her religion from Islam to Zoroastrianism, everything fell apart and she was forced to leave Iran with her husband and two children.
Upon entering Turkey, she submitted her documents and evidence to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and was accepted as a refugee. The United Nations obligated the Turkish government to refrain from returning her to her country where her life is in danger.
According to Homa’s statements, many people who have changed their religion have been sentenced to death by the Islamic Republic regime on charges of apostasy, and their sentences have been carried out. “Hossein Soodmand,” a person who converted to Christianity before the 1979 revolution and had a house church, was executed in Mashhad in December 1990. Similarly, “Seyyed Ali Gharabat,” who had also converted to Christianity, was executed in Ahvaz in February 2011 on charges of apostasy and incitement to corruption.
Homa and her family fled to Turkey to save their lives, and after several years their case was approved by the United Nations. However, since 2018, when cases were transferred from the United Nations to the Immigration Office for re-examination, her case has also been rejected. She filed a complaint with the court against the Immigration Office’s decision and is awaiting the appeal verdict. However, according to her statements, along with other refugees like Homa who are awaiting appeal verdicts, this procedure is merely a way to buy time to prevent their deportation to Iran, while the court has in many cases simply repeated the Immigration Office’s decision.
On this matter, Homa stated: “There is no such thing as the United Nations in Turkey. In practice, they provide neither protection nor assistance. I am a UN refugee and every time I have contacted them, they have only said to wait. We here have neither work permits nor financial assistance, and we are even deprived of having insurance. Should we go and die?”
She expressed that the lives of all those who fled Iran to Turkey for ideological and political reasons, particularly Christians and other minority individuals, are in danger, as the majority of refugees are deported by the Turkish government and in some cases handed over to Iranian border police.
According to human rights reports, the conditions for refugees in Turkey are deteriorating. Turkey’s critical economic situation, wave of inflation, and high living costs have placed refugees under more pressure than Turkish citizens themselves. These conditions have become unbearable for many of them.
Mahshid Nazemi, a human rights activist who was herself a political refugee in Turkey for many years, said on this matter: “The cause of all these hardships is an authoritarian government that has forced us Iranian people to experience forced displacement.”
