Interior Ministry investigates missing Syrians: The figures have emerged

As a result of the Interior Ministry's investigation, 396 thousand out of 731 thousand Syrian refugees who could not be found at their registered addresses have still not applied to update their addresses despite warnings.

In this context, authorities are checking whether there are any records of these refugees receiving services from official institutions in Turkey in recent years. For example, they are examining whether they have visited hospitals, sent their children to school, or received aid from the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay).

It is believed that if a record is found in these institutions recently, it could be concluded that these individuals are living in Turkey. However, the thesis that those for whom no transaction record appears have left Turkey will be focused on.

THEY MAY HAVE MOVED TO EUROPE

According to a report by Alican Uludağ from DW Türkçe, Ministry sources are focusing on the possibility that Syrian refugees who have not updated their addresses and have not been detected receiving services in Turkey in recent years have moved to Europe through illegal means. However, this result will be announced after the investigations to be conducted at the end of the given period. Furthermore, the Ministry of Interior will report this number to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex).

TIME IS RUNNING OUT

After Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced last week that 731 thousand 146 out of 3 million 103 thousand registered Syrian refugees under "temporary protection" in Turkey were not at their addresses, the question "Where are these refugees?" came to the agenda.

In his statement on August 5, Yerlikaya said that they had sent warnings to these individuals in Turkish, English, and Arabic to update their addresses, that they would be given 90 days and then an additional 2 months to update their addresses, and that when the time expires, these individuals would not be able to benefit from any services such as education and health.

According to the data shared by Minister Yerlikaya during his appearance on Habertürk TV on August 9, 203 thousand 978 out of 731 thousand refugees updated their addresses following the warning, and 130 thousand 430 refugees made an appointment with the ministry to update their addresses. However, 396 thousand 738 refugees have still not made any application.

The 90-day period initially given to the missing Syrians will expire at the end of this month. The registrations of refugees who do not update their addresses within this period will be suspended. After the period expires, the Ministry will grant these refugees an additional 2-month period. If the Syrians do not update their addresses at the end of this additional period, their registrations will be deleted. This means they will lose their "temporary protection" status and will be considered "irregular migrants." This implies they will not be able to benefit from many of the rights provided to them.

Turkey, which is a party to the 1951 Geneva Convention regulating the international rights of refugees with a geographical limitation, does not accept people coming from the east as refugees. For this reason, Syrians who fled after the civil war in their country were granted "temporary protection" status in Turkey.

DECREASE IN THE NUMBER OF REFUGEES

According to official data, while there were 3 million 737 thousand Syrians with temporary protection status in 2021, this number fell to 3 million 103 thousand as of August 1, 2024. Thus, the number of refugees has decreased by 634 thousand in the last three years.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya stated that as of December 2023, Turkish citizenship had been granted to 238 thousand Syrian refugees under temporary protection, and in his statement on June 13, 2024, he said that 658 thousand 463 Syrians had returned home since 2016.

According to the figures of the Presidency of Migration Management, operations against migrant smugglers in Turkey have increased since 2015. While 10 thousand 482 migrant smugglers were caught in 2023, this number was recorded as 7 thousand 176 as of August 1 in 2024. In 2024, 27 thousand 112 Syrian irregular migrants were caught.

'OPPOSITION COMMENTARY ON MISSING SYRIANS'

CHP Deputy Chairman responsible for Interior Policies, Murat Bakan, claimed that the issue of missing migrants shows that the Ministry of Interior is in a "serious state of weakness."

Stating that there is no example in any country in the world where so many migrants are not found at the residential address they gave to the state, Bakan said, "They asked them to update their addresses, but the problem doesn't end there. Other questions and problems arise for both those who updated their addresses and those who did not. For example; did these missing people provide information on where they currently are while updating their address information? Or are the addresses of the Syrians who updated their address information in the same province and neighborhood where they were previously registered, or in a different province or neighborhood? These questions are very important. Because a change of province can be done with a travel permit. If the new address of a Syrian who updated their address is in another province, this means they are moving illegally."

Stating that refugees coming from conflict zones in Syria also pose a security problem, Bakan pointed out that there are also members of terrorist organizations among them. Bakan said, "Knowing the number of these people and the address they declared does not just mean recording the information of migrants in our country. In a country that has been fighting terrorism for years, you also have to approach migration based on security. You cannot evaluate it only within the scope of a general security issue within the scope of common crimes."

Demanding that a closed census be conducted "very urgently" regarding the refugees, Bakan said, "Take the declarations of the migrants, but you, as the state, conduct this census yourself. Collect their biometric data as well. Let the truth come out. Because it is impossible for you to solve this problem without reaching the truth."

News Source: 12punto