According to information received from the youth movement abroad "ADH" (Adalat Demokratik Hereketi-Fair Democratic Movement), in the deportation center of Ankara (Chankyry deportation center, which is 80 kilometers from the capital of Turkey) physical violence was used against three Turkmen migrants these days. (More details are available on Tiktok channel Alişer86 on February 1)
Previously, these migrants were detained due to expired documents. Then they managed to escape from there, but on January 31, the fugitives were caught by the Turkish police and returned back to the deportation center. According to them, the reason for the escape was poor conditions of detention, for example, they were kept in a room of 3x3 meters, 15 people each, fed poorly.
Another source from the Antalya Deportation Center (Doshemealty) also reports that the conditions of detention in the deportation centers leave much to be desired. For more than 3-4 months, 8 citizens of Turkmenistan have been kept in it, who do not have a change of clothes, the clothes in which they were detained became unusable.
Dozens of Turkmen migrants interviewed by us, who also were kept in deportation camps, said that Turkmen diplomats never asked about their fate. Deportation center staff share with migrants that they have been waiting months for a response from the Turkmen embassy and consular services. However, Turkmen officials do not recognize their fellow citizens for months, do not restore lost documents, do not assist them in finding lawyers, in providing medical assistance. In this regard, the Turkish authorities are forced to keep Turkmen migrants in isolation for 6-9 months.
A young Turkmen A.B., who spent time in the Kyrklareli migrant center, spoke about this on air: “Lawyers from their consulate came to all foreign migrants, but Turkmen diplomats did not come to any of us. I was there for over 6 months.”
Turkmens who ended up in Turkish deportation centers say that they have previously repeatedly applied to their consulates in Ankara and Istanbul with a request to issue them new passports to replace the old ones or to renew those who have expired documents, but faced insurmountable obstacles. Namely: in some cases, consular workers ignored the request of their compatriots, in others they dragged out the process for a long time, in others they groundlessly refused.
Thus, Aziz Mammedov, who applied for renewal of his passport to the consulate of Turkmenistan in Istanbul in the fall of 2021, has not yet received a document. Moreover, near-consular persons on behalf of the Turkmen regime began to threaten him because, after the incident with the loss of the document through the fault of the consulate, he began to publicly criticize the actions of Turkmen officials.
In addition, many children of migrants born in Turkey, due to the lack of a birth certificate, find themselves in the situation of homeless people. For example, Mukhammedali Sakhatov, born on January 27, 2022. His parents applied to the consulate several times for a birth certificate. In one case, he was simply kicked out of the consulate, advised to go to Turkmenistan. This was impossible due to the lack of air links with Turkmenistan. In another, on August 16, 2022, the baby’s father, Alisher Sakhatov, along with other Turkmens, was attacked right on the territory of the consulate.
Since last year, consulates began to renew passports for many Turkmens until December 31, 2024. But they do not include activists who criticize the consular service, their documents are not extended.
But old-style passports are not renewed for anyone. As a result, thousands of migrants are deprived of permission to stay in the country where they ended up, turning into illegal immigrants. Because of this, they lose their jobs, housing; their children are unable to attend school, many are deprived of the right to health care and the freedom to travel.
Turkmen Helsinki Fund for Human Rights
