Turkey is still not a Party to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness despite submission to the Parliament of the draft law endorsing ratification of the Convention in 2014. The instrument for accession to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless People was deposited in March 2015 and the Convention entered into force on 24 June 2015.
Under the Law, the stateless identification document issued for stateless people, following an assessment for determination of the status, is accepted as a valid document for initiation of official procedures such as marriage procedures, issuance of power of attorney and any other bureaucratic procedures. As envisaged in the Law, stateless people are to be covered under the national health insurance scheme and have access to primary and secondary stage health services as well as medication. They can apply for a work permit and may be exempted from the conditions outlined in the Law for issuance of a work permit. They are entitled to apply for any type of residence permits under the LFIP, including long-term residency.
Despite the favourable developments in the legislative field, progress with regards to implementation of the relevant provisions of LFIP in establishing a stateless determination procedure has not advanced very far. This gap is partly related to the lack of expertise and partly due to delays encountered in the operationalization of DGMM which has focused on asylum related affairs given the imperatives due to the current situation. Consequently, for the moment, the unit in charge of residence permits for foreigners is dealing with statelessness-related issues. Long-standing gaps in the quantitative and qualitative data on statelessness continue to exist, which affects the overall assessment of the situation in the Turkish context.
To strengthen its capacity-building efforts, UNHCR incorporates the subject of statelessness in its training activities. The relevant topics are presented at the workshops targeting DGMM’s central and field staff. Global Action Plan to End Statelessness and the Good Practices Paper-Action 1 on Resolving Major Situations of Statelessness were translated and widely distributed among the national stakeholders.
In view of the birth incidents recorded in high numbers, UNHCR and its partners have intensified their focus on the birth registration to mitigate the risk of future stateless cases. The leaflet prepared to increase awareness among the refugee communities on the importance of birth registration has been disseminated in camps and out-of-camp through community centers and uploaded on UNHCR website. Regular briefings and updated information are delivered to the UNHCR partners and civil society actors on the subject to promote registration by the parents. UNHCR raises the issue both at the central and local levels during the consultations with the national authorities by underlining the need to strengthen the capacity of the civil registry staff in order to avoid gaps in implementation.