Refugee Rights Turkey and long-time partner organization Dutch Council for Refugees (DCR) have inked a new cooperation protocol, which will see DCR continue to channel organizational expertise and funding support to help strengthen RRT’s administrative capabilities and sustainability measures. The DCR – a leading European refugee assistance and advocacy NGO, seeks to contribute to efforts aiming to build a fully functional national asylum system in Turkey. With that strategic commitment in mind, the DCR has been a strong supporter of RRT’s work from the beginning of RRT’s operational launch in March 2015. In addition to contributing expertise and co-funding support to RRT’s currently ongoing comprehensive legal aid and capacity-building project in partnership with American partner organization Refugee Solidarity Network (RSN),

Refugee Rights Turkey held a specialization seminar for lawyers in Ankara on 23 December 2016 in collaboration with the provincial bar association, as part of RRT’s efforts to support local bar associations to strengthen expertise and operational capabilities to serve asylum seekers and detained migrants. The 1-day seminar focused on the content and implications of the amendments enacted by the Emergency Decree No:676 in the provisions of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection governing deportation practices. The seminar was organized in the framework of the project currently implemented by RRT in affiliation with Refugee Solidarity Network. The event received a lot of interest from Ankara-based lawyers, including lawyers currently involved in the delivery of the bar association’s state-funded legal

Refugee Rights Turkey launches a new legal information booklet on rights and safegaurds available to persons undergoing immigration detention in Turkey. The booklet is made available in 7 languages and is meant for immigration detainees as well as lawyers and NGO practitioners. The legal information booklet is designed to provide accurate and accessible legal information and guidance to detained individuals and persons and groups at risk of immigration detention as well as lawyers and NGO practitioners seeking to assist detained individuals.  It was produced in the framework of the project currently implemented by RRT in affiliation with Danish Refugee Council and with funding support from the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Directorate-General (ECHO). The booklet is made available in

Heinrich Böll Stiftung Turkey awards a project grant to Refugee Rights Turkey, which will allow RRT to further strengthen existing services for particularly vulnerable asylum seekers and bolster capacity to pursue advocacy efforts at international level. The initial first-phase of the project, to be completed by the end of the year, will see RRT dedicate additional staff resources to legal assistance activities benefitting particularly vulnerable asylum seekers, and deliver a Legal Opinion Paper tackling specific questions and recommendations concerning the judicial review of immigration detention in Turkey. The cooperation framework is also set to support RRT’s advocacy work and interactions at European level.

Refugee Rights Turkey held a 2-day introductory refugee law training for lawyers in Gaziantep on 6-7 August 2016 in collaboration with the provincial bar association. The training was organized in collaboration with the Human Rights Center of Gaziantep Bar Association. The 2-day training was attended by over 100 local lawyers interested in further improving their knowledge of international refugee law standards and Turkish asylum procedures with a particular focus on the protection of asylum seekers subject to administrative detention and deportation proceedings. The training was organized in the framework of the project currently implemented by RRT in affiliation with Refugee Solidarity Network. Gaziantep currently hosts over 300 000 Syrian refugees as well as a large-scale removal center, which recently became

RRT launches a dedicated “Detention Hotline and Help Desk” as of July 2016 to make our legal counseling and assistance services more accessible to persons in immigration detention as well as lawyers and NGO practitioners seeking to assist detainees. The Hotline can be reached at: 0507 218 62 85, and will serve Turkish, English, Arabic, Farsi speakers all week days from 10 am till 6 pm. Legal counselling via interpretation in other languages will be arranged on scheduled days. RRT’s new Detention Hotline and Help Desk service seeks to provide detainees with accurate and reliable legal advice, and allow RRT detention legal assistance team to identify individuals in need of further legal support – including by means of site visits

Refugee Rights Turkey launches a new project, in partnership with Danish Refugee Council (DRC), aiming to boost RRT’s ongoing legal assistance activities directed towards asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants held in immigration detention. The project, enabled by a funding stream provided by the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Directorate-General (ECHO), will allow RRT to expand existing Rights in Detention Program activities, including by means of a dedicated Detention Hotline and Helpdesk for detainees as well as lawyers and NGO practitioners who assist persons in immigration detention facilities. The project will also see RRT deliver legal empowerment sessions for groups at risk of immigration detention, produce and disseminate of a new legal information booklet on “rights in detention”, and

Refugee Rights Turkey, in affiliation with partner organization Refugee Solidarity Network (RSN), launches a new project funded by US-based Tent Foundation, aiming to strenghen RRT’s ongoing efforts to assist unaccompanied minor asylum seekers in Istanbul and beyond. The 12-month project enabled by the Tent Foundation grant will allow RRT to dedicate additional resources to currently ongoing Child Protection Program activities that extend legal counselling and assistance to unaccompanied minors sheltered in state child protection facilities in Istanbul area with a view to securing their full access to national legal protection mechanisms and rights and services committed under Turkish law. Over the course of the project, RRT staff will undertake counselling visits to various child protection facilities in Istanbul under the

Refugee Rights Turkey and partner organization Refugee Solidarity Network (RSN) held a one-day workshop in Istanbul on 24 February 2016, bringing together representatives of leading national and international NGOs undertaking refugee advocacy and assistance activities in Turkey.  The workshop brought together representatives of NGOs and INGOs operating in all parts of Turkey and allowed for a lively discussion on various developments in the Turkey asylum context, including the future implications of the new EU-Turkey Agreement in the pipeline and the latest developments in newly established DGMM’s takeover of migration management activities from the National Police, the state body previously in charge of migration affairs. The workshop was also aimed to strengthen the currently limited level of dialogue between national and

Refugee Rights Turkey launches a new set of legal information materials for non-Syrian asylum seekers in Turkey, who are subject to Turkey’s new “international protection procedure”. The brochures are made available in Turkish, English, Farsi, Arabic, French and Somali. While Syrian nationals and Palestinian refugees from Syria are subject to a “temporary protection” regime in Turkey, asylum seekers from all other countries of origin are subject to the new “international protection procedure” on the basis of criteria and procedures laid down by the new Law on Foreigners and International Protection. Our new information brochures on rights and obligations of international protection applicants and are intended to serve as a learning and reference resource for both asylum seekers as well as

On 13 February 2016, Refugee Rights Turkey held a 1-day specialization seminar for lawyers in Istanbul. The training focused on legislation and practices pertaining to the legal protection of particularly vulnerable asylum seekers. An expert from Dutch Council for Refugees has contributed to the seminar.  The seminar program covered relevant legal definitions and procedures provided by both the Law on Foreigners and International Protection and the Temporary Protection Regulation.  Dutch legal expert Angelina van Kampen contributed to the seminar with a presentation on relevant EU standards and ECtHR case law as well as an analysis of the identification and treatment of particularly vulnerable asylum seekers in the Dutch asylum system. Refugee Rights Turkey aims to contribute to capacity-building efforts of

On 13-14 February 2016, Refugee Rights Turkey held a legal counselling visit to the city of Bursa in Northwestern Turkey. Bursa currently hosts a significant population of Syrian asylum seekers. The visit to Bursa was undertaken in coordination with the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality, the Provincial Directorate of Migration Management and several local NGOs that provide aid and assistance to Syrian refugees in the city. Over the past two years, Bursa has become one of the urban centers in Turkey hosting significant numbers of Syrian refugees. Syrian refugees in Turkey benefit from the Government of Turkey’s “temporary protection” policy on the basis of the Temporary Protection Regulation of 22 October 2014. The group counselling sessions were attended by representatives of the