Author: Maral Takmazian

Human Rights Watch
Oct. 15, 2021
[Authorities Deny Afghans Right to Seek Asylum]
(New York) – Turkish authorities are summarily pushing Afghan asylum
seekers crossing into the country from Iran back to Iran, in violation
of international law, Human Rights Watch said today.
Six Afghans, five of whom were pushed back, told Human Rights Watch
that the Turkish army beat them and their fellow travelers – some to
the point of breaking their bones – and collectively expelled them in
groups of 50 to 300 people as they tried to cross the border to seek
safety in Turkey. Some families were separated in the process.
“Turkish authorities are denying Afghans trying to flee to safety the
right to seek asylum,” said Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict
researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Turkish soldiers are also brutally
mistreating the Afghans while unlawfully pushing them back.”
Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to visit Turkey on October 16,
2021 to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Merkel should push
the Turkish government to end its summary expulsions of Afghans;
investigate allegations of collective expulsions, rejections at the
border, and the denial of the right to seek asylum; and remedy such
instances.
From September 25 to October 11, Human Rights Watch remotely
interviewed six Afghans, five of them in hiding in Turkey to avoid
being expelled to Iran, and one who had been forcibly returned to Iran
for a third time. All had fled Afghanistan shortly before or after
August 15, when the Taliban took control of Kabul.
They said they had traveled through Pakistan and Iran, and that
Iranian smugglers took them to the mountainous border with Turkey in
the middle of the night and told them to run across. Turkish soldiers
started firing above their heads. and two said that the soldiers
brutally beat them.
While one of the Afghans successfully remained in Turkey on his first
try and one had been deported back to Iran, the four others said
Turkish soldiers forced them back up to three times before they
succeeded in remaining in Turkey.
Two said that Turkish forces destroyed their possessions, and those of
everyone in the group they were expelled with. “Once they arrested us,
they confiscated our phones, money, food, and anything else we were
carrying and burned all of our things in a big fire,” one woman said.
“I assume they did this to send the message that we should not try to
cross the border again.”
One man said they stripped the men in his group down to their boxer
shorts and burned the clothes and all their belongings, then forcibly
returned them.
One man said that soldiers beat them with the butts of their guns and
that several men in his group had broken hands, arms, and legs from
the beatings. “It took 10 days for the pain to go away, but for my
friend it was worse,” he said. “He had to get our smuggler to take him
to a doctor in Iran who treated him for a broken arm and leg.”
Another man said: “The second time I crossed into Turkey I saw the
Turkish soldiers beating people crossing with me to the point that
they were covered in blood and had big wounds to their heads. They
beat me for about 20 minutes with the butts of their guns and sticks,
leaving me bleeding.”
Three Afghans said that while they were not seriously beaten
themselves, they saw soldiers brutally beating, including with heavy
hoses, others running with them. “There was one very tall soldier,
with his face concealed,” a woman said. “He was like a madman, wildly
beating my brother with a stick and yelling, ‘Why did you come here?’”
One woman said that on her third attempt to cross into Turkey with her
two children, her brother, his wife, and their child, Turkish soldiers
detained her brother and his wife and expelled them, leaving their
child with her.
One man said that a man in his group was forced back with him to Iran,
while his wife and children were taken to a detention center in
Turkey. He said that police arrested him in  a town 180 kilometers
west of the border and brought him to what looked like a refugee camp
that was being used as a detention center, where his group joined
about 135 people.
He and another man said that after they were sent back to Iran with
their group, thieves abducted the group and demanded ransoms to
release them. “The thieves came in cars and on motorbikes, wielding
knives and sticks,” he said. “They demanded that we get our families
to send US$100 per person. We got our smuggler, who we could reach on
the phone, to send them the money, and then of course we owed that
money to the smuggler afterward.”
The other man said the thieves held them for two days, took all their
belongings including cash, beside their phones, and forced them to
call their relatives to send money through brokers in Iran.
Turkey hosts the world’s largest number of refugees, 3.7 million from
Syria granted temporary protection status, and over 400,000 refugees
and migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries. Human Rights
Watch has previously documented illegal pushbacks and beatings of
asylum seekers, including to Syria, and the media has reported on the
violent pushbacks of Afghans to Iran.
While most people interviewed said they were forcibly returned close
to the border, one said that he and eight of his relatives were
deported after they went to a local immigration office in Turkey. He
said they went to the office because they were ill and needed to be
allowed to go to a hospital.
“When we got there, the authorities arrested us and took our phones
and turned them off, so the rest of our family had no idea what
happened to us,” he said. “They held us for two nights and one day,
and only fed us twice … after the second night they put us onto buses
with about 100 other people and drove us to the border. One soldier at
the border told us, ‘Here is the border. Don’t come back. If you do,
we will beat you.’”
All governments receiving Afghan asylum seekers and other migrants,
including Turkey, should fully respect international refugee and human
rights law, as enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, human rights
treaties, and customary international law. Notably, the obligation of
nonrefoulement prohibits returning anyone to a place where they would
face a real risk of persecution or threats to their lives or freedom,
torture, or other serious harm. Iran continues to deport Afghans to
Afghanistan. For example, Iran deported 28,735 Afghans back to
Afghanistan in the span of three days in early September.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), governments, and other actors should
monitor, document, and challenge pushbacks at Turkey’s borders.
Governments with embassies in Turkey should support Turkey to register
and protect Afghan asylum seekers and press Turkey to allow all
agencies working for refugees to freely assist and help protect all
Afghans, including those who are unregistered.
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, the European
Commission, and European states should publicly press Turkey to
refrain from summarily expelling Afghan refugees to Iran, where they
are at risk of chain deportation to Afghanistan and other serious
harms. The Commission should closely monitor developments and take
into consideration collective expulsions and deportations of Afghan
asylum seekers in its cooperation with Turkey on migration control and
for its reports on Turkey’s accession process and on the European
Agenda on Migration.
“EU member states should not consider Turkey a safe third country for
Afghan asylum seekers and should suspend all deportations and forced
returns of Afghan nationals, including to third countries like Turkey
where their rights would not be respected,” Wille said. “They should
also ensure that Afghans entering the EU via Turkey have access to
fair and efficient asylum procedures.”