On October 2, a one-day seminar on deportation/refugee issues was held in Istanbul at the initiative of Turkmen activists. Lawyer Yakup Sevinchkhan from Sevinchkhan law office was invited to the seminar.

The Turkmen migrants who gathered for the seminar listened attentively and asked questions on the following topics:

• How can one appeal against administrative detention;

• Who is subject to deportation, what is the appeal procedure;

• Procedure for filing an application for international protection;

• How to appeal if your application is not accepted;

• Procedure for applying for humanitarian residence, etc.

About 20 people were present at the meeting, which took place from 13:00 to 19:00 at the office of the public organization "Oghuz: culture, education and cooperation", and 1840 people were online. At the end of the meeting, the participants exchanged their opinions.

One of the participants, Dursoltan Taganova, told the THF: “I am currently under the asylum procedure, but even for me a lot of things were new and useful. It turns out that everything is not as simple as it seems to everyone. This process is so complicated! There are so many stages to go through and it takes a lot of time. It was very helpful for my friends to know all the details of this procedure. The lawyer was able to open the eyes of the participants to the fact that not every applicant can get the status. It depends on many factors that are beyond the control of either human rights activists or activists, as some mistakenly think. It's all about local rules, laws, as well as international laws that no state can violate."

Turkmen Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights