The number of Turkish nationals seeking asylum in Germany has risen sharply in the past two years. The reasons for this are different – and the chances of obtaining asylum are sometimes slim.
A shared accommodation in the Ingolstadt region. Two Turkish men have been living there for almost three months. You want to remain anonymous. Amir* and Malik’s* stories are similar. Both worked as teachers at one of the Turkish government’s military schools. With the coup attempt by parts of the Turkish military in 2016, everything changed for the two men.
“They destroyed the entire justice system”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government suspected many people of being involved in the coup, including many people who were allegedly close to the Gülen movement. Many were imprisoned or lost their jobs, among other things. So does 53-year-old Amir. “I’ve been afraid of our government since 2016. They have destroyed the entire justice system – across the country,” he reports. His wife fled to another country with their adult children in 2016. A trial is now underway against him in Turkey, he says.
All I did was read these so-called dissident books. They called me a terrorist. I never held a gun, I just held a book and they call me a terrorist. And that’s why I’m accused in Turkey.
He says he faces more than six years in prison.
“Very difficult for me to leave my family”
33-year-old Malik also had similar experiences. He criticized Erdogan’s government. That is why he is threatened with a prison sentence in Turkey. He left his wife and two small children behind in his home country. “It was very difficult for me to leave my family. But I had no other choice. I had to escape, otherwise I would have gone to prison.”
Malik reports that he has already been imprisoned. He doesn’t want to experience that again: “That was a difficult time. We were beaten and the living conditions there are simply terrible,” he says. Both Turks now hope to be safe in Germany. Because they have lost faith in the Turkish justice system and in a fair trial. They repeatedly emphasize that there is no longer an independent judiciary in Turkey and that the definition of terrorism is extremely broad.
Number of asylum applications almost doubled
According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, or BAMF for short, around 45,000 Turkish citizens have submitted an initial application for asylum this year (as of October 31, 2023). That’s almost twice as many as last year. This puts Turkey in second place among the main nationalities for initial applications for asylum in October. Most initial applications – around 33 percent – were made by people from Syria. Turkey follows with 30.4 percent. Afghanistan is in third place with almost twelve percent.
Complex reasons for fleeing
Wiebke Judith from Pro Asyl is hardly surprised that so many Turkish people are currently coming to Germany. The reasons are complex: “The human rights situation in Turkey has steadily worsened,” she says. In addition, after President Erdogan’s re-election, many people lost hope of a change back to democracy and the rule of law. Above all, the judicial system in Turkey no longer works independently, says Judith. In addition to Erdogan’s re-election, the poor economic situation with high inflation and the severe earthquake at the beginning of the year also played a role.
Turkish Kurds make the majority of applications
According to Pro Asyl, the majority of refugees claim to be of Kurdish ethnicity. The Turkish Kurds very rarely get asylum, emphasizes the legal policy spokeswoman for Pro Asyl. This is also evident from the data from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). Of the approximately 45,000 initial applications submitted from January to October 2023, almost 38,000 were from Kurds. Of the 15,000 decisions made for Kurdish Turks this year, the BAMF rejected around 10,000 asylum applications.
BAMF: Always one Decision on a case-by-case basis
According to Pro Asyl, it is more difficult for the Turkish Kurds to prove that they are victims of repression and persecution. This year, the overall protection rate, i.e. the proportion of positive asylum decisions, is 57 percent for Turks and less than five percent for Kurdish Turks. The BAMF explains that all applications will be carefully examined. And it emphasizes that it is always a case-by-case decision. “Due to individual factors, decisions can be very different even for people from the same country of origin. The stated ethnicity does not have to be the cause of protection status,” a spokeswoman said in writing BR-Inquiry with.
The applicants’ presentations are so complex that it is not possible to reduce them to a statistical component. According to the Federal Office, the reasons for protection status or rejection of an asylum application are not statistically recorded.
Pro Asyl: “Be honest about the situation in Turkey”
But Wiebke Judith sees systemic errors in the decisions on asylum applications: “The federal government or the subordinate Federal Office for Migration and Refugees must be honest about what the situation is in Turkey. That it is no longer a constitutional state.” The Turkish government is actively persecuting many people and is also using the judiciary to do so.
But the assessment of the Turkish judiciary is still being adopted, she criticizes. The human rights situation is also glossed over for political reasons, says Judith. But asylum procedures must be about the actual realities from which people are fleeing.
Back at the refugee accommodation in the Ingolstadt area: Amir and Malik feel safe here. Their trust in the German state is great. They hope for a positive decision on their asylum application – and for a free life in Germany.
*We have changed the names at the request of both men.