{"id":377,"date":"2011-10-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/?p=377","title":{"rendered":"Turkish Prime Minister to visit Hatay Syrian Refugee Camps: EMHRN calls for better international protection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"File\/Statements\/2011\/PRMigrationrepor14-10-11English.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Please Click Here To Access Report \u2013 PDF File<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>October-14-2011<\/p>\n<p>The Euro-mediteranean  Human Rights Network (EMHRN) calls on Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to seize  the opportunity of alleged plans to visit Syrian refugee camps in Hatay to  improve the status of Syrians crossing into Turkey. EMHRN also invites the  Turkish authorities to consider EMHRN latest report published following a  week-long mission to refugee camps in the southern province of Hatay late  August.<\/p>\n<p>Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is reported to have declared  he is soon to visit Syrian refugee camps in Hatay during a press conference in  New York after reports from pro-Assad media outlets, claiming that Syrian  refugee camps have become a center of isolation, rape and torture.<\/p>\n<p><em>&lsquo;We invite the Prime Minister to take stock of the  recommendations we make in our report. His visit should serve to address the  pressing need that Syrian refugees have to get a clear status providing them  with better international protection in such dire times<\/em><em>,&rsquo;<\/em> declared EMHRN President Kamel Jendoubi. <\/p>\n<p>On August  22-28, a delegation  representing the Euromediteranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) conducted a  fact-finding mission in Turkey to assess the living conditions of Syrian  refugees in Turkey.<\/p>\n<p>The Mission report states that as &ldquo;guests&rdquo; of the Turkish  State, Syrian refugees enjoy <em>de facto<\/em> protection and had overall access  to decent living conditions in the camps. The Mission however calls attention  to the fact that this status remains both open to interpretation and to  revocation. The report thus warns of the lack of minimum guarantees that the  full application of the Turkish Asylum Regulations would provide.<\/p>\n<p><em>&lsquo;By  way of this report, we want to acknowledge the Turkish Government&rsquo;s humane  handling of the thousand of Syrian refugees, and the efficient accommodation it  has offered them. Nevertheless,<\/em> <em>with the Syrian crisis intensifying every week, and the likelihood that  the refugees will be unable to return home in the near future, we urge the  Turkish government to reconsider the &ldquo;guest&rdquo; status and allow refugees to  register as asylum seekers.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&lsquo;<\/em><em>In  spite of the many shortcomings of the Turkish regular asylum system, we believe  that systematic registration of the refugees as asylum seekers by the competent  authorities and the UNHCR would provide any Syrian national wishing to register  as an asylum seeker with a clearer status and clearer legal protection against  refoulement,&rsquo; <\/em>added  EMHRN President.<br \/>\n  The  refugees, who arrived in thousands since the eruption of violence in Syria  mid-March, reported to the delegation that they have either witnessed, or  personally suffered major human rights violations in Syria and they continue to  fear for their lives should they return to their country. <\/p>\n<p>The EMHRN  continues to strongly condemn the Syrian government for its deadly crackdown on  pro-democracy demonstrators in Syria that has killed at least 2,700 people  (according to the latest UN figures) and led to the arrest  and torture of hundreds more. <\/p>\n<p>The EMHRN  fears that current estimates of the number of casualties remain unverifiable  and vastly underestimated (due to the absence of international observers on the  ground, as some Syrian human rights groups claim that the death toll has risen  above 5,000 victims). <\/p>\n<p>Furthermore,  the EMHRN reiterates that providing protection to the people coming from  Syria seeking asylum in Turkey is not only a humanitarian imperative, but an  obligation under international law.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;For  more information on Migration and Asylum, please contact: Caroline Stainier at <a href=\"mailto:cst@euromedrights.net\">cst@euromedrights.net<\/a><br \/>\n  &nbsp;&nbsp;<br \/>\n  For more  information on the EMHRN, visit our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.euromedrights.org\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"File\/Statements\/2011\/PRMigrationrepor14-10-11English.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Please Click Here To Access Report \u2013 PDF File<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>  October-14-2011<\/p>\n<p>  The Euro-mediteranean  Human Rights Network (EMHRN) calls on Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to seize  the opportunity of alleged plans to visit Syrian refugee camps in Hatay to  improve the status of Syrians crossing into Turkey. EMHRN also invites the  Turkish authorities to consider EMHRN latest report published following a  week-long mission to refugee camps in the southern province of Hatay late  August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}