2023-08-21 13:34:50
Berlin. According to the news by Deutsche Welle, more than 80 percent of the applications made from Turkey to Germany are Kurds, but their asylum applications are repeatedly rejected.
Robin E., who has a criminal record in Turkey for insulting the President and propaganda for a terrorist organization, told Deutsche Welle about his experiences as follows: “Wherever I applied for a job, I always received a positive response, and the interviews went well. When it comes to my criminal record, I was sentenced and served time for insulting the President and making propaganda for a terrorist organization. “I’m sorry,” they said. “From now on, I would either die of hunger or leave the country.”
Robin E. decided on the second option and left Turkey in December 2022. He bought a round-trip flight ticket to Serbia through human traffickers and made a hotel reservation in Belgrade. Robin E. „There is a place called Subotica, the networks direct it there, everyone knows it. Taxi drivers at Belgrade Airport take you by heart. “I went there too,” he explains.
After reaching Serbia, one evening, when it got dark, they walked through the forest for hours until they reached the border, from where they jumped the fence and crossed into Hungary. “Two vehicles picked us up and took us to Dresden,” said Robin. “Then I took refuge in Germany,” he continues. The number of refugees from Turkey to Germany has increased at record levels in the last two years. While the asylum applications made by Turkish citizens to Germany in 2021 were 7 thousand 67, this figure more than tripled in 2022 and reached 23 thousand 938.
Türkiye overtook Afghanistan in July
A total of 23 thousand 938 asylum applications were made from Turkey to Germany in 2022. In the first seven months of this year (January-July), Turkish citizens’ applications for asylum in Germany have already reached 23 thousand 82.
Turkey ranks third in asylum applications to Germany in recent years, after Syria and Afghanistan, which have been marked by war and crises for decades. In July 2023, with 3 thousand 791 applications, Turkey left Afghanistan behind for the first time and became the second country with the most asylum applications after Syria.
While the number of asylum seekers is increasing, Germany’s acceptance rate for applications is gradually decreasing. The German Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) announced that 15 percent of the applications made by Turkish citizens were approved in the January-July period this year. This rate was 27.8 percent last year and 37.2 percent in 2021.
More than 80 percent of refugees are Kurds
According to the information provided by BAMF to DW Turkish, 3 thousand 878 of the total 7 thousand 67 asylum applications made by Turkish citizens in 2021 were Kurds. Last year, 19,500 of the more than 23 thousand asylum applications made from Turkey, that is, more than 81 percent, were from Kurds.
Of the more than 23 thousand people seeking asylum in the January-July period this year, 19 thousand 220 declared to the German authorities that they were Kurdish.
Kurdish community in Germany: “We were waiting”
Evaluating the asylum applications made to Germany to DW Turkish, General Secretary of the German Kurdish Community, Cahit Başer, said, “Like many organizations, we expected an increase in asylum applications if the government won the elections again.” Stating that “For members of ethnic and religious minorities and democrats, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s election victory is not only a disappointment, but also means more pressure, restrictions and prosecutions,” Başer said, “Racism against Kurds and Alevis has long been generally accepted by society a reality. “Everything other than Turkish and Sunni is seen as a threat or danger,” he said. Arguing that all these further increase the pressure people feel to leave the lands they live in, Başer is of the opinion that “The February 6 earthquakes further deepened the existing pessimism in the Kurdish provinces, which have been neglected for decades.”
Dündar Kelloğlu, a lawyer and Lower Saxony State Board Member of Pro Asly, a non-governmental organization that helps asylum seekers in Germany, also said, “The 50 percent who did not choose Erdoğan are in great depression right now.” Stating that they observed this intensely among those who came to Germany and took refuge in Germany, Kellogg continued his words as follows: “The pessimistic and pessimistic atmosphere that prevails in this period did not exist even after the 1980 military coup.” Kellogglu added that considering the current political situation and the associated economic crisis, asylum seekers are likely to increase further.
Aydın: Asylums will increase or continue at high levels
Dr., one of the experts of the German Science and Politics Foundation (SWP). Yaşar Aydın is also of the opinion that the pessimistic course of the economy, in addition to the current political climate, is effective in departures abroad. “They see that they will have to give up more and more things due to the increasing economic crisis and that they will lose even more from their current prosperity,” said Aydın, adding that especially the educated segment is looking at the future more and more pessimistically, leaving their country because they cannot see a safe future for themselves in Turkey and leaving Germany. He stated that he went to countries like.
Record rejection of Kurdish asylum applications
For many years, until the coup attempt in 2016, Turkey was ranked behind in asylum applications to Germany, with an average of 1,500. However, after the July 15 coup attempt, applications increased exponentially in 2017, first to 8 thousand 27, in 2018 to 10 thousand 160, and in 2019 to 10 thousand 784. What was remarkable during these dates was the record increase in the number of Turkish citizens who claimed to be Turkish among asylum seekers. Lawyer Kelloğlu pointed out that they observed that most of those who said they were Turks were accused of being members of the Gülen Movement.
However, this trend has been reversed since 2021, and the rate of Kurds among Turkish citizens seeking asylum began to increase again, as in the 90s. Last year, the number of people stating that they were Kurdish increased more than five times compared to the previous year.
The gap for accepting applications from those who declare that they are Turks and Kurds has also gradually widened. While 77 percent of the applications of those who said “I am a Turk” when they sought asylum in Germany in 2021 were accepted, this rate was only 10.7 percent for those who said they were Kurdish. Last year, while 73 percent of the applications of those who said they were Turkish were approved, the acceptance rate for those who said they were Kurdish dropped to 8.2 percent. In the first seven months of this year, 59.8 percent of the asylum seekers who said “I am a Turk” were given a positive response, while the acceptance response given to Kurds decreased by almost half to 4.8 percent.
In recent years, many Turkish citizens have been among those caught irregularly entering Germany through the borders.
“The situation in Turkey has not changed, but BAMF has changed its attitude”
BAMF officials, to whom we asked the question why the acceptance rate for asylum applications from Turkey has decreased, stated that “emphasizing that asylum is a completely individual event, reports containing social and political developments in the countries where asylum seekers come from are frequently updated, and thanks to these reports, asylum applications are examined and accepted or rejected.” BAMF did not comment further.
Kellogglu, who thinks that the BAMF has changed its assessment of Turkey without any improvement in the issues of fundamental rights and freedoms and judicial independence in Turkey, said: “In the past, those who were prosecuted due to their political views or who had an arrest warrant against them would receive admission, now only those whose sentences have been finalized are given the right to stay. “If someone is wanted or their case is ongoing, they reject it,” he said. Başar, Secretary General of the German Kurdish Community, also criticized BAMF’s assessment that “asylum is individual” as a “fabricated legal cover”.
27-year-old public administration graduate Mustafa S. is among those who do not see a future for himself in Turkey. Mustafa S., born in Diyarbakır, came to Serbia by plane two months ago and then went to Germany by land. He was caught by the police on the side of a highway in Bavaria, where the smugglers left him, and then he applied for asylum. “An investigation was opened against me because I attended the commemoration of Tahir Elçi, I was banned from the profession, and my job applications always resulted in rejection due to my criminal record. “There is no right to live, they want us to die,” said Mustafa, who now lives in a refugee dormitory. Mustafa says that he applied for a German course, that they play football twice a week with the teams they formed with other refugees in the refugee dormitory, and that they motivate each other not to lose hope. (Deutsch Welle DW)
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