In their letter addressed to President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Minister of Interior İdris Naim Şahin, Minister of Labour and Social Security Faruk Çelik, Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Şahin and the General Directorate of Social Security, 10 NGOs1 working in the field of asylum and migration draw attention to the fact that with the regulations made in the field of general health insurance, refugees and asylum seekers who seek protection in Turkey will face with serious problems in their access to health services.
The 10 NGOs criticise the latest point reached regarding the access of asylum seekers and refugees to health services and the official notifications requesting them to pay 212,76 TL monthly premium under the Social Security Law numbered 5510 while over 25.000 refugees and asylum seekers in Turkey could hardly meet their most basic requirements such as shelter and food.
The NGOs call the President, Prime Minister and the Ministers to take urgent measures to enable asylum seekers and refugees as well as all those migrants with urgent, acute and chronic health problems to get free access to health services without being forced to pay any premium.
Dear,
By 31.12.2011, the number of refugees and asylum-seekers who have left their countries and have taken refuge in Turkey has reached to 25.429. Resolution has been taken that fear of cruelty of 14.465 of them is legitimate and these people have received refugee status according to the international law. 10.964 of them have asylum-seeker status according to international law since their files have not yet received a resolution1. However, in accordance with the national legislation in the field of asylum, these people are named as “Asylum Applicants”; not as refugees or asylum-seekers2.
According to Article 60/1 (c) of the Social Insurance and Common Health Insurance Law, “asylum-seekers and statelesses” are not included in common health insurance. As stated above, because of the terminology that is used in the national legislation, there are 7 asylum-seekers and 598 statelesses that can be counted as entitled to the Common Health Insurance by July 2011 depending on the data from ministry of internal affairs3. More than 25.000 people who are “Asylum Applicants” according to the national legislation, are not entitled to Common Health Insurance.
According to the law no. 5510, people who do not have any social security and who cannot pay a contribution to common health insurance have the opportunity to apply for an income test. However, more than 25.000 “Asylum Applicants” cannot apply for the income test to which only Turkish Citizens can apply. As a result of all these, over 25.000 people who took refuge in Turkey according to the international law and “Asylum Applicants” according to the national legislation are expected to pay 212,76 Turkish Liras contribution per person which is the highest contribution ratio to benefit from common health insurance. In the recent days, directorates of social security institutions have sent a letter to refugees and asylum-seekers –according to international law– (Asylum Applicants according to the national legislation) saying that they should pay the 212,76 TL, or they would have to pay this money with a delay fine and default interest too. Besides, the refugees and asylum-seekers who have benefited from health services are being made notifications to pay the service back.
A significant number of people who took refuge in Turkey and who has been named as refugees and asylum-seekers by the international law (Asylum Applicants according to the national legislation) are having serious difficulties to provide their very basic needs such as shelter and food. They do not receive any regular payments from public institutions or local governments; only a very limited number of refugees and asylum-seekers can receive a very little housing support or financial support. UNHRC pays 100 TL, only to a very limited number of refugees who received refugee status according to the international law and who are financially in a difficult situation. It is impossible to pay 212,76 TL amounted common health insurance per month for the refugees and asylum-seekers who are not allowed to work in practice although the legal basis allows them to.
Thousands of people, accepted to be asylum-seekers/refugees by the international law, are not able to pay this contribution and can benefit from health services only if they afford high costs. Besides, for they could not pay the 212,76 TL amount of contribution, these people are going to be cashed a penalty increase and a delay penalty.
Among the refugees and asylum-seekers who took refuge in our country, there are people who suffer from chronicle diseases such as cancer, heart disease, hepatitis, diabetes and blood pressure related problems. Furthermore, a lot of refugee and asylum-seeker have gone through physical and psychological traumas in their countries. Having taken refuge in our country, they still do not have access to an adequate and balanced diet; or sanitary and most of the time neat sheltering conditions and they are having a serious uncertainty for the future. While all these are already serious factors which affect asylum-seekers’ and refugees’ physical and mental health conditions negatively and while even in the current conditions their access to health services and treatment processes are extremely tough, with the regulations on the Law No. 5510 their access to health services will be almost impossible.
Besides, the additional paragraph of the Article 64(c) of the Law says that foreigners’ expenditures, who have been suffering from a chronicle disease before having a general health insurance, are not going to be covered by the institution; and this constitutes a situation which damages the sense of equity in health. Therefore, as 10 non-governmental organizations, active in the field, whose names are stated below, we want to present the problem to your attention. We expect you to take initiative to accomplish necessary regulations which would make all the people who took refuge in Turkey and who are accepted as refugees and asylum-seekers by the international law and all the migrants4 in Turkey who suffer from emergent, acute and chronicle diseases even if they do not have applications to the asylum system benefit from the health services without paying for any costs or contributions.
24 February 2012
Best Regards,
Helsinki Yurttaşlar Derneği (hYd) ■ İnsan Hakları Derneği (İHD) ■ İnsan Hakları Araştırmaları Derneği (İHAD) ■ İnsan Hakları Gündemi Derneği (İHGD) ■ İnsan Hakları ve Mazlumlar İçin Dayanışma Derneği (Mazlumder) ■ İnsan Kaynağını Geliştirme Vakfı (İKGV) ■ Mültecilerle Dayanışma Derneği (Mülteci-Der) ■ Sığınmacılar ve Göçmenlerle Dayanışma Derneği (SGDD) ■ Türkiye İnsan Hakları Vakfı (TİHV) ■ Uluslararası Af Örgütü Türkiye Şubesi (UAÖ)
To:
Abdullah Gül, President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister
İdris Naim Şahin, Minister of Internal Affairs
Faruk Çelik, Minister of Labor and Social Security
Social Security Organisation
_________________________________________________________________________________________
1 These numbers are obtained from Turkey office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 31.12.2011 UNHCR’a Başvuran Sığınma Talep Etmiş Kişilerin Yaş, Cinsiyet ve Ülke Dağılımı ve Mülteciler – Yaş, Cinsiyet ve Ülke Dağılımı
http://www.unhcr.org.tr/?page=12
2 Geneva Conventions of 1951 on Status of Refugees defines a refugee ‘as owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is out-side the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country’.
According to the 1951 Convention if a person claims to be a refugee, but if these claims have not been made certain and resolved, that person is defined as an asylum-seeker.
Depending on the geographical restriction that Turkey put on 1951 Convention, the concepts of refugee and asylum-seeker are not used in accordance with 1951 Convention in Turkish Legislation. Since Turkey does not accept the ones who come from non-European countries as refugees, according to the Turkish Legislation the definitions of refugee, asylum-seeker, asylum applicants/ refuge applicants have different meanings than those in 1951 Convention. According to the Turkish Legislation, the equivalents of these concepts are found in Interior Ministry’s June 22nd 2006 dated practice direction (Memorandum No. 57). According to this: “Refugee” has a foreign citizenship or is a stateless person who does not have a certain citizenship, who came from European Countries and his/her refugee status has been recognized by the Interior Ministry because he/she suits the criteria in the definition of refugee which is in the 1st article of the 1951 Convention, in the manner that is stated in the 3rd article of the 2nd paragraph of the 1994 Asylum Directive.
“Asylum-seeker”; has a foreign citizenship or is a stateless person who does not have a certain citizenship, who came from non-European Countries and his/her asylum-seeker status has been recognized by the Interior Ministry because he/she suits the criteria in the definition of refugee which is in the 1st article of the 1951 Convention, in the manner that is stated in the 3rd article of the 3nd paragraph of the Refuge/Asylum Instructions of 1994,”
“Applicant”, “Applier” or “A person who applied for Refuge/Aslyum”; has a foreign citizenship or is a stateless person who does not have a certain citizenship, who came from European and non-European countries and who applied for asylum and about whom the Interior Ministry has not reached a final decision.”
A major part of the people who come from non-European countries and applied for asylum are being evaluated according to this category and even if they have received a refugee-status from UNHCR they are named as “Asylum Applicant”. The ones who are recognized as refugee by the UNHCR, and who are in the resettlement procedure to a 3rd country who accepts him/her are recognized as “asylum-seekers” by the Interior Ministry when they are completing their exiting processes from Turkey. Therefore, these people to whom the government gives the “asylum-seeker” status in their last few weeks, do not generally stay in Turkey more than a couple of weeks thereafter. For this reason, the number of the people who have been in Turkey for a period of time and accepted as an “asylum-seeker” according to the legislation is very limited.
3 These numbers are compiled from 07.07.2011 dated response given by the Directorate of Security Presidency of Foreigners Border Refugee Department to the application made by the Association for Solidarity with Refugees within the scope of Right Of Information Acquirement.
4 People who left their countries or the country they stayed, for economical reasons, are named as immigrants.
