Workshop on State-Funded Legal Aid for Migrants and Asylum Seekers

On 27 January 2018, Refugee Rights Turkey held a workshop in Istanbul with participation from bar associations, NGOs, international organizations and judiciary for key stakeholders to discuss potentials and challenges of mobilizing Turkey’s state-funded legal aid scheme for migrants and asylum seekers.

The workshop was organized in collaboration with RRT’s American partner organization Refugee Solidarity Network(RSN) in the framework of the two organizations efforts to promote new policy thinking among key stakeholders to increase the overall supply and availability of legal representation for migrants and asylum seekers in Turkey. The event was attended by representatives of 12 provincial bar associations, the Union of Bar Associations, Turkish judiciary, UNHCR, IOM and 10 NGOs.

In Turkey, state-funded legal aid services are administered by provincial bar associations around Turkey. While there is no legal exclusion of foreign nationals of legal aid services, practical obstacles remain and the current supply of legal aid services to migrants and asylum seekers is limited. On the basis of the findings of a field research carried out by RRT during the second half of 2017, the stakeholder representatives took stock of the progress achieved in recent years by bar associations in mobilizing legal aid services to asylum seekers and detained migrants and factors that continue to limit these groups’ access to legal aid services. Particular consideration was devoted to issues having to do with the financing and process management of the Turkish state-funded legal aid scheme as well as ongoing shortages of specialized expertise.

Refugee Rights Turkey is preparing to launch the findings of the mentioned field research along with a series of policy recommendations in March.

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