Overview

Mostly children and women

70 per cent of refugees in Turkey are children and women.

Working with Partners

The Government of Turkey leads the refugee response with UNHCR providing direct operational support, capacity building and technical advice to Turkish authorities. As the refugee agency, UNHCR also coordinates the efforts of UN agencies and partners to support Turkey’s refugee response to avoid duplication and gaps in international assistance. UNHCR implements its activities with 22 government, UN and NGO partners.

Main Activities

Registration and Refugee Status Determination

• Support the Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM) to conduct a verification exercise to update and obtain missing information on Syrian refugees under Temporary Protection, including biometric data, contact information, and detailed background information such as occupation, education and vulnerability on refugees. Verification is being introduced as a continuous part of registration. The project began in January 2017 and will be rolled out in all 81 Provinces divided into seven Zones.
• Transition Refugee Status Determination (RSD) activities into national procedures. UNHCR is further strengthening its cooperation with DGMM to build a strong and quality national asylum system and RSD procedures. In this context, UNHCR and DGMM agreed on Data-Sharing SOPs to be implemented at registration.

Resettlement

• Implement a resettlement programme based on a rigorous prioritization of cases with the most acute vulnerabilities or protection risks. Nearly 29,000 refugees were submitted for resettlement in 2016, and the current target for 2017 is 32,000.

Protection

• Strengthen partnerships with frontline institutions and upscale advocacy initiatives with Turkish authorities concerning registration, access to asylum and protection, for persons of concern. In addition, improving access to legal remedies and assistance remains a priority.
• Provide legislative support to ensure that laws and policies incorporate principles and standards compliant with international refugee law; promote coherence of actions on the ground with the legal framework; and ensure that refugees enjoy their rights and access to services which promote self-reliance.
• Support integration of refugees and asylum-seekers into public services in sectors such as education, health, social assistance, child protection, legal representation, prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and support to persons with specific needs and vulnerabilities to ensure persons of concern benefit from existing protection mechanisms. In close cooperation with line ministries and municipalities, persons of concern’s access to social services is facilitated to promote sustainability of the response and improve social cohesion.
• Reach out and communicate with refugees to engage them directly in protection responses. UNHCR is consolidating its community-based protection approach by engaging with authorities and service providers to facilitate access to services and support and establish two-way communication with refugee communities to empower them. Communication will also improve advocacy, protection interventions and information sharing.
• Cooperate with legal actors to enhance refugees’ access to justice by providing legal aid and representation and promoting effective remedies in collaboration with institutions such as the Justice Academy and the Union of Bar Associations. MoUs signed with both institutions aim at systematizing these efforts across the country.
• Support frontline institutions dealing with mixed migratory flows to sustain their reception capacity including identification of groups with special needs and efficient use of referral mechanisms.
• Support networks of active refugee and Turkish youth in line with the priorities identified through the national Youth Empowerment Action Plan, UNHCR and partner agencies assist youth with activities on social cohesion, education, and prevention of child marriage and SGBV.
• Develop capacity building activities to strengthen technical abilities of national authorities and humanitarian partners to ensure implementation of a rights-based approach and efficient implementation of the legal framework.
• Harmonize provision of assistance and services between Syrians and refugees and asylum-seekers of other nationalities to ensure that the nature and the level of assistance provided by UNHCR and its partners is provided equally, to the maximum extent possible.
• Strengthen the capacity of NGO partners to identify cases with specific needs and child protection issues as well as improve their case management capacity.

Education

• Bolster the efforts of the authorities to ensure access to education for school-age children through community outreach on educational services as well as procuring Turkish language textbooks (over 900,000 in 2016 and 2017) and helping prepare children to enrol in schools.
• In partnership with the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB), provide scholarships for advanced Turkish language programmes to enable high school graduates to meet language proficiency requirements for enrolment in higher education. Also, scholarships are awarded to Syrians through UNHCR’s DAFI Turkey’s higher education scholarship to cover tuition, accommodation and other related costs.

Community Empowerment and Self-Reliance

• Promote refugees’ skills development, employability, and access to the labour market to mitigate against destitution and negative coping mechanisms as well as promote livelihoods, resilience, and social cohesion. Cooperation and partnerships with private sector actors are also being enhanced to promote refugee employment.

Basic Needs and Cash-Based Interventions

• Provide essential relief items, through partners, to those most in need in urban areas.
• Provide winter assistance to refugees and asylum-seekers in Turkey by delivering cash to the most vulnerable in urban areas. Last winter, over 580,000 persons received winter cash assistance and all camp-based refugees were given winter clothes, high thermal blankets, and/or heaters. Winter assistance will also be provided in 2017-2018.
• Support improvement of WASH conditions through provision of hygiene kits to refugee populations as well as shower, WC and accommodation containers to frontline institutions.
• Deliver monthly cash assistance to particularly vulnerable refugees belonging to protection categories at risk.

Health

• Provide interpreters to hospitals throughout the country. Trainings on international legal protection and national legislation related to health issues are provided to the Turkish Ministry of Health staff. Also, in cooperation with MoH and DGMM, leaflets on access to health services are distributed in several languages.

Camp Coordination and Camp Management

• Support AFAD in the management of camps in southeast Turkey by ensuring regular staff presence in all of the camps to offer technical assistance in areas, such as registration, identification of vulnerabilities, other protection concerns and to monitor voluntary repatriation. Replacement tents are also provided on a regular basis.

Raising public awareness

• UNHCR Turkeys implements an integrated communication strategy through traditional media and enhanced use of social media and interactive platforms to raise public awareness on the situation of refugees and others of concern, garner public support and understanding towards refugees and the work of UNHCR.