Page 135 - Syrians in Türkiye - Special Report

GRAND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF TÜRKİYE THE OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTION

Migration Policy Board, which held its first meeting on February 15, 2017, gets
involved in regular and comprehensive meetings. In addition, careful attention
should be paid to ensure the participation of reliable NGOs and academic
institutions working in the field in the Board meetings, which will increase
communication and contribute to the elimination of difficulties in coordination
and implementation.

Additionally, considering that the Directorate General of Migration Management has
only been in operation for a few years, it is important to strengthen the staff capacity
of the institution, especially the capacity of the Provincial Directorates of Migration
Management.

Moreover, the establishment, if not already established, of specialized units which will
work directly on the foreigners’ transactions within the body of the relevant institutions
will lead to significant benefits in increasing coordination among the public institutions
which provide services to the Syrians. 69

IFurthermore, we learned during meetings held within the scope of the special report
that numerous tasks related to monitoring migrant activities in rural areas were given to
the Gendarmerie General Command together with the Directorate General of National
Police; in other words, in addition to activities related to public safety and smuggling, first
admissions of the migrants (fingerprints and identification information), completion of
the documents, keeping them until their referral, and submitting them to the Provincial
Directorate of Migration Management (if there is a judicial situation, to the judicial
authorities), dispatching migrants to temporary accommodation centers, return centers,
or border gates are all assigned to these forces under the instruction of the Provincial
Directorate of Migration Management. Since the Gendarmerie General Command
(together with the EGM and the MIT) began to carry out security investigations
on Syrians under temporary protection status, and since the Service Commands also
return illegal migrants to the Gendarmerie, the workload of the General Command of
Gendarmerie personnel has increased significantly.

After preparing the relevant documents by taking the identity information of foreigners
rescued at sea while trying to illegally leave our country, the police and the Turkish
Coast Guard Command staff, who turn them over to the Gendarmerie forces, may face
difficulties in some cases during the turnover process, especially during the process of
returning illegal immigrants.

69
The list of public institutions working with refuges in Türkiye is provided in the appendix

SYRIANS IN TÜRKİYE SPECIAL REPORT 135