Initial Assessment of the Current Situation of Afghan Refugees in Turkey – Türkiye

Background

Turkey has been one of the world’s largest refugee-hosting countries in the last decade. After the Syrian crisis in 2011, Syrian refugees were seeking refuge in Turkey and have passed the borders to have temporary protection status. According to the latest statistics, there are approximately 3.700.000 million of Syrians registered in Turkey under Temporary Protection (TP).1 However, the situation of the Afghan people is different. Since the 1970s, Afghan people have sought refuge in different countries, especially neighbour countries such as Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey.
It has been known that Afghan people have been forced to displace within and from the country and according to the UNHCR, Afghan refugees represent the longest-standing displaced persons in the world. The conflicts and poverty in Afghanistan produce refugees and their migration flows are also exploited by human trafficking.
For the last five-ten years, Turkey is the first address where Afghan refugees will either stay in the country permanently or wait at a transit point to cross to third country. Despite statistical uncertainty, according to the latest data of UNHCR2, “116.403 Afghan asylum seekers and 980 Afghan refugees are residing in Turkey.² Roughly 4.400 Afghans in an irregular situation were arrested by Turkish authorities in January-February 2021.³ 6.000 Afghans were deported from Turkey to Afghanistan from January to December 2020.3 “This data makes them the second larger refugee group in the country just after Syrian refugees. Afghan refugees are generally considered to be “irregular migrants” since they crossed borders without official documents.
Aksaray, Konya, Nevşehir, Trabzon, Tokat, Çankırı, Kayseri, Erzurum, Van and Istanbul are considered as main provinces where Afghan refugees settle. According to the field reports of Afghan association (ARSA) in Kayseri, numbers of Afghan refugees benefitting from International Protection are as follow: 5700 in Kayseri, 8846 in Konya, 8756 in Nevşehir, 5890 in Karaman. In other words, especially Marmara Region (Istanbul), Central Anatolian provinces, Van as the main border city, and some Black Sea provinces close to Central Anatolia or Van are the places with the highest Afghan population.

Methodology

Since current migration flow of Afghan refugees flee from Taliban by passing Iranian borders to arrive Turkey becomes a very significant issue in the last months, IBC took action to conduct an initial assessment to understand the situation and what can be done as potential intervention.
The first-hand observations and feedbacks from IBC Esenyurt InfoHub (an Istanbul district, disadvantageous area, populated with vulnerable host and refugee communities members) and the results from expert interview with manager of Afghan Refugee Solidarity Association (ARSA, also a partner of IBC from Turkey Refugee Council) in Kayseri (a metropolitan city in Central Anatolia) enlighten the current situation of Afghan migration flow.
While the initial assessment results taken from ARSA interview include information about Afghan refugees in Kayseri having International Protection, the initial assessment results taken from IBC Esenyurt InfoHub include mostly information about unregistered Afghan refugees in Istanbul having no official IP status yet.
Before any survey that will be realized in the upcoming periods, these initial insights aim to explain the current migration flow of Afghan refugees and life conditions of already settled Afghan refugees under International Protection.
Assessed results are already similar to the UNHCR’s third-round of the protection sector inter-agency needs assessment results, carried out in January 2021.4 IBC was one of the partners of these inter-agency need assessments, and Afghan refugees were second group of the sample size. IBC’s own initial assessment has been done in the first week of August 2021. The assessment analysis aims to understand the main challenges faced by Afghan refugees in both cities, Kayseri and Istanbul. These two cities represent a good sample: Istanbul, as one of the main focal places of Syrian and non-Syrian refugees address, already hosts many registered and unregistered refugees. Kayseri, as one of the metropolitan cities in Central Anatolia represents general situation of non-Syrian refugees (especially Afghans) settle in and around.