Legal Remedies for Protecting Immigrants as a Transit Country under Turkish Law on Foreigners and International Protection

The volume of refugees and other migrants transiting through countries to reach their final destination is unprecedented world­ wide by any standard. Refugees and migrants are extremely vulnerable to abuse and there has been an unprecedented level of crime in transitory countries, committed by a variety of local and international criminal organizations involved in human trafficking, human smuggling and forced organ donation. In addition, both local citizens and refugees as well as migrants are guilty of a variety of crimes including rape, assault, theft intimidation, violence and other forms of abuse. Governments, NGO’s, International Organizations and lawyers are struggling to find solutions that are compliant with local and international laws and human rights conventions. A new legal framework to address these unpreceden­ted juridical challenges is required. Turkey provides an excellent legal, sociocultural and political example of the legal difficulties that the refugee and migrant crisis places on a country. 

Turkey comprises the northern Mesopotamia and the narrow stretch to Europe, which forms a geographically attractive migration channel to Europe for Syrian refugees and other migrants fleeing persecution. The extensive watershed of migration and refugee movement through Turkey has created enormous challenges for the Turkish government and people. The UIA has chosen to host a conference in Samsun, Turkey to learn about the challenges of transit countries and migrants in transit in order to identify constructive migration and refugee legal and human rights protections in transit countries, with the help of various legal and other experts which is organized  by  International Association of Lawyers (UIA) Immigration and Nationality Law Commission & the UIA Human Rights Commission in collaboration with the Samsun Bar Association, with the support of the Istanbul Bar Association.