About us

MÜLTECİ-DER
HAS BEEN FOUNDED
FOR REFUGEE RIGHTS

 In order to protect and defense the rights of the asylum-seekers, immigrants and refugees that have taken shelter in our country, MÜLTECİ-DER (ASSOCIATION OF SOLIDARITY WITH REFUGEES) was founded in 31 January 2008 in İzmir.

 In 16 June 2007, upon the invitation of Amnesty International Turkey Branch and also Mazlum-Der, with the participation of the representatives of many non-governmental organizations founded in İzmir, and a representative of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and representatives of some of the public institutions, a diurnal meeting was held on the subject of “refugee problem and İzmir example”. At the end of this diurnal study, a coordination committee that was formed by the representatives of some of the participant non-governmental organizations provided various humanitarian aids, especially two meals daily, to the asylum-seekers in İzmir until the month of November in 2007.

Another meeting was held in 17 November 2007 and the works that had been done until that day from the month of June were evaluated and it was emphasized that aid operations should be broadened by raising up to more organized working dimensions in the following process, and people coming various segments with various ideas founded the Association of Solidarity with Refugees in 31 January 2008.

Why refugee rights?

The phenomenon of asylum that has been always present in every stage of the history of humanity faces us as a more serious phenomenon today. Even though the route of the population movements with asylum purposes change, Turkey is on an important route that leads from east and south to west and north. Mediterranean and Aegean regions draw attention as the regions where refugee movement has increased recently. We have been receiving tragic refugee news from various provinces of Turkey but especially from coastal Aegean region nearly everyday.

We observe that İzmir, which is deemed to be “outgoing province” in refugee population movements in Turkey, has started to become “incoming province” in respect of many African asylum-seekers within the last one year. In addition to the requirements of these people such as food, clothing, shelter and medical assistance, it has been observed that they also need legal consultancy due to their presence in Turkey and we have started to take action in order to work on these issues.

A person that is under threat or tyranny such as torment, ill-treatment, unjust imprisonment and even death due to his/her race, religion, nationality, ideological outlook or relativity to a certain social group has the right to asylum in the country that he/she reaches the first after passing his/her own country’s border or from the international society. Having been protected by religions, various administrations and conventional law in more general sense, this right was acknowledged and taken under protection as a basic human right in the article 14 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Then, many regional and international human rights conventions and documents included this right in various shapes. Although Turkey is in the possession of an insufficient domestic law on this subject, it is a contracting state in many international conventions and for this reason it is under legal responsibility to protect refugee rights.

In the event of request for asylum in a country, although the responsibility, practices and initiation of that country against the asylum-seeker is at hand, this subject, which directly addresses humans, is too important to be left only to the governmental bodies. Consequently and also “at the same time” we believe that non-governmental organizations, in other words, our society have a crucial responsibility against the individuals that seek asylum in our country.

The asylum-seekers that encounter problems in this area are absolutely in disadvantaged positions and especially need support since they do not know the language of the country into which they seek asylum and since they encounter economic problems in general. Since they do not know the legal system of the country – either it can not be expected from them to know it – expecting the asylum-seekers to reach persons and organizations that will help them is not a logical and acceptable approach. For that reason, civil society should prick up its ears to their problems, be interested, help, take active role in this process and carry out necessary supervision. In addition to social aids that can be provided, the supervision of the legal and administrative process and also defense of asylum-seeker rights by getting involved in the process are extremely important for this disadvantaged segment.

We founded Mülteci-Der with all these opinions, feelings and beliefs in mind with the aim of assisting these people that have achieved to reach our country escaping from life-threatening dangers and that possess extremely unfavorable opportunities on the subjects of claiming their rights and meeting their needs in our country. We think that we have started this movement on behalf of the civil society in Turkey and in İzmir and that our society will support this movement very sensitively.

What are we planning to do?

Among the things that our association is planning to do we can list the following; continuing the meal allowance two times a day that has been continued by İnsan-Der up to now since June and providing clothing aid, limited medical aid, psycho-social aids and legal consultancy services. Creating sensitivity and raising awareness in the society for refugee rights and organization of trainings at various levels will be one of our most important work areas. In addition, we will defend refugee rights so that the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers arising out of national and international laws can be exactly put into practice and the process shall be supervised and observed on behalf of he civil society. It is aimed to carry out various studies for the problems of children and women that are in a more disadvantaged position within refugee and asylum-seeker groups and to assist them within the scope of education, language learning, occupation and residence problems.

The most important feature of our association will be production of services or organization of the services towards the addressees on this area together with the non-governmental organizations, trade associations and international organizations and mechanism that are active in areas such as children, women, law, human rights, education, psycho-social aid, health, occupation and humanitarian aid. We would like to produce solutions and mediate the implementation not only with various organizations of the civil society but also with Municipalities, public institutions of Turkey for social service, Governorships and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that is the expert body of the United Nations

We consider taking part in this process and helping these people on the spot not as a “burden sharing” – which is also an idiom of the international refugee terminology – but as “honor sharing” on behalf of humanity and invite everyone to share this honor with us as far as our call reaches.

January 2008