Page 140 - Syrians in Türkiye - Special Report

GRAND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF TÜRKİYE THE OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTION

work in close cooperation with DGMM, AFAD, the Turkish Red Crescent, and the
Undersecretary of Public Order and Security, or some institutions should be directly
attached to it. These new ministries or the undersecretary or department should also
be prepared to take a role in the effective functioning of local governments, which are
extremely important in the process.

When considering the number of refugees in Türkiye, the nature and diversity of
services offered, and the significant economic, social, political, and security impacts of
migration on our country, it is very important to establish the necessary policies and
strategies for immigration in advance. More importantly, the policy and strategies for
immigration must take a holistic and long-term approach, and our country, which has
the largest refugee population in the world, must act within the framework of a strategy
of immigration which takes into account economic, social, and political aspects.

The role of the UN in immigration and refugee crises can succeed in cooperation with
the political decisions of the countries and their stances on migration. The Syrian
mass migration is an example of failure for the UN. The Syrian crisis and subsequent
migration movements and the reaction of other countries show that the structure of the
UN must change.
II. The Registration Process

The first and a very important part of the process management carried out in relation
to the Syrians entering our country is the collection of reliable registration information
and data. Many aspects are of great importance for creating records in an accurate and
detailed way, as well as for security issues, and planning and implementing the measures
to be taken. Information on issues such as gender, age, education level, occupation,
disability is of great importance in all kinds of plans to be made.

However, since Syrians started coming to Türkiye on April 29, 2011, both the technical
impossibility caused by the number of refugees exceeding 100,000 per day and the fact
that the Directorate General Migration Management was not legally established until
April 2013 and only started acting in April 2014, when they started taking systematic
biometric records, there were problems with the records taken between 2011 and 2014.
It is clear that in any country or region of the world, it is not easy to register such a crisis
when the number of refugees is so high. On the other hand, we have learned that most
of the Syrians did not carry official documents that allowed us to confirm their identity,
and some are hesitant to share their identity information because of fears related to the
situation in their country. In practice, they were registered based on verbal statements,
so it is not surprising that there are some problems in terms of the reliability of the

140 SYRIANS IN TÜRKİYE SPECIAL REPORT