Registration of asylum-seekers is the recording, verification and updating of information relating to people who declared they were forced to flee their home country. This process allows them to receive the needed assistance, protection, access to rights in the country of asylum, and enables to understand the reasons why they left their country and to identify the most appropriate durable solution for them.
UNHCR Turkey registers asylum-seekers through its partner organization, Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (ASAM). Asylum-seekers of all nationalities have an opportunity to get registered through this process except for nationals of Syrian Arab Republic who are registered in Turkey as beneficiaries of Temporary Protection and countries who are members of the Council of Europe.
While UNHCR has been maintaining this registration process for many years, it is in recent years that UNHCR and Directorate General for Migration Management (DGMM) have started establishing a close collaboration in this area in order to harmonize the data collected. These efforts also aim to consolidate and simplify registration procedures across the country. To this end, UNHCR and DGMM have launched a pilot phase of joint registration process in July 2017 whereby both entities conduct registration in unison complementing each other. With UNHCR continuing collecting the data of approaching asylum seekers, DGMM completes the registration process with assignment of Foreigner’s ID number to each registered individual followed by referral to designated city in the country. This methodology has been identified as the most practical as through this process asylum-seekers receive a unique opportunity to be registered by UNHCR and DGMM on the same day of approach and become immediately eligible to access services in the country of asylum. Furthermore, the joint registration process aims at increasing the efficiency of the system thus enhancing the protection environment for the population of concern.