Focus: Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Abstract

8 | International Union Rights | 23/3 FOCUS | TURKEY Syrian Refugees in Turkey Employment and Trade Unions’ Response The Syrian refugee crisis is one of the largest, most protracted and unpredicted displacements in the world, and since 2011 Turkey has become the major refugee-hosting country (UNHCR 2014). According to the latest statistics by the UNHCR, 4,808,229 registered refugees have been forced to leave Syria, primarily moving to Turkey (2,724,937), Lebanon (1,033,513) and Jordan (656,198) since 2011 (UNHCR 2016). In the face of the influx of Syrian refugees, the Turkish Government declared an ‘open-door’ policy and welcomed the movement of Syrian refugees, predicting that the conflict would end swiftly and allow Syrian ‘guests’ to return home (İçduygu, 2015). After the mass Syrian influx to Turkey, the Turkish government has set up emergency camps to locate refugees, which were extended in scope to 26 camp locations in 10 provinces providing shelters, education, health and other services. However, only 10 percent of Syrians are living in the camps, while the majority have chosen or were forced to live in the centre of cities in the hope of finding decent living and working conditions. The vast majority of Syrian workers are working in the informal economy and are unable to exercise freedom of association without their employers’ applications for work permits and trade unions’ actions. In March 2016, Turkey and EU agreed to send migrants/refugees back to Turkey, in return for the disbursement of 3 billion euros initially allocated under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey and the guaranteed funding of further projects for persons under temporary protection. Participating EU member states also agreed to lift visa requirements for Turkish citizens by the end of June 2016 (to date, this has not been realised and is still a contentious matter). Under the deal, all new irregular migrants crossing from Turkey into Greek islands as from 20 March 2016 will be returned to Turkey; for every Syrian being returned to Turkey from Greek islands, another Syrian will be resettled from Turkey to the EU. Legislative Framework The most important legislative developments for Syrians in Turkey are as follow; (i) Temporary Protection Regulation Law No. 6458 which regulates the right to education, health and work for Syrians; (ii) Regulation on Work Permits of Foreigners under Temporary Protection which regulates work permits for Syrians who do not have residence permit; (iii) The Law on International Labour Force No. 6735 which aims to balance between national and international labour forces and to attract qualified foreign professionals. Syrian refugees are still considered as ‘guests’ (a word chosen instead of ‘refugees’) in Turkey. Syrians do not have ‘refugee status’ because Turkey still maintains ‘the geographical limitation’ to the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which limits ‘the refugee status’ to individuals from European countries. Therefore, to respond to the crisis and to meet the emergency protection needs arising from the mass influx of Syrian refugees, the Turkish Government adopted the Temporary Protection Regulation in October 2014. The regulation defines ‘temporary protection’ as a protection status granted to foreigners, who were forced to leave their country, cannot return to the country they left, arrived at or crossed our borders in masses or individually during a period of mass influx, to seek emergency and temporary protection and whose international protection request cannot be assessed individually. Moreover, the Turkish government has more recently discussed the possibility of conferring Turkish citizenship on Syrians. The Temporary Protection Regulation provides Syrian refugees with rights and duties and sets the framework for access to the labour market. Pursuant to this Regulation, the Regulation on Work Permits of Foreigners under Temporary Protection was introduced on 15 January 2016, as improving livelihoods and enhancing decent work opportunities for Syrians became rather crucial to supplement humanitarian aid and assistance. According to this regulation, foreigners may obtain work permits six months after the date of registration of ‘temporary protection’ and in the provinces where they are permitted to reside (mostly in South-eastern Turkey). In addition, foreigners cannot be paid less than the minimum wage. One much-debated article provides that foreigners cannot exceed 10 percent of the Turkish...