According to Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees  (UNCHR), the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide will be 122.6 million by 2024. Most of the world's refugees and people in need of international protection live in Turkey, Iran, Colombia, Germany and Uganda. The vast majority of migrants and refugees living in Turkey are Syrians and Afghans. According to data released by the Ministry of Interior's Directorate of Migration Management on August 29, the number of Syrians under temporary protection registered in Turkey is 3 million 96,157, of which 1 million 487,000 are women and 756,000 are girls. 

 

In countries where women are forced to migrate, they have to cope with psychological and economic traumas as well as the traumas of their children, language and cultural problems, discrimination, racism and unemployment. Women, who cannot even access their legal rights, are left completely unprotected against physical and sexual violence in all areas of life. 

 

As November 25th approaches, we talked to Istanbul MP Özgül Saki, who is a member of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party's (DEM Party) Migrant and Refugee Commission and has brought the problems faced by refugees to the agenda of the Parliament with the motions she submitted.

 

OFFICIAL DATA

 

Özgül Saki stated that migration has become mass especially with the civil war that started in Syria in 2011 and said: "According to the data of the current migration office, there are 3 and a half million migrants coming from Syria alone. We are informed that half of them are women. But we know that the statistics given by the state are definitely not safe. Because the are unregistered ones. These figures are probably much higher."

 

NO STATE POLICY

 

State has no policy on these migrations said and stated that women are exposed to racism and sexual harassment in the countries they migrate to. 

“The most basic problem against this is that there is no authority they can go to. When they file a complaint with any police officer and when they make it a judicial problem, they are told 'you are migrants, what more do you want'. Their complaints are not followed up and they are threatened with deportation. As a matter of fact, most recently a migrant woman from Syria filed a complaint. However, her complaint was not followed up and she was sent to the Repatriation Center. Now she is facing the threat of deportation. In other words, state policies do not have any positive aspects for refugee women, and they are threatened when they express the existing problems and difficulties,” she said.  

 

STATUS OF REPATRIATION CENTERS 

 

Özgül Saki stated that she submitted a research motion to the Presidency of the Parliament on October 17 regarding the problems refugee women face in Repatriation Centers and said that they aim to establish an independent network with democratic mass and professional organizations that struggle in solidarity with refugees and migrants. Özgül Saki said: “An investigation commission was established in the Parliament against femicides and male violence. This happened at the insistence of the DEM Party. In the commission of inquiry, we want to make it the main problem of this commission to produce a solution for migrant and refugee women by not ignoring the problems they face in this country.” 

 

Özgül Saki stated that one of the pillars of the campaign launched by the DEM Party Women's Assembly in September with the slogan “We Insist on Free and Equal Life, We Organize” will be about refugee women and said: “They have closed the Repatriation Centers even to MPs. One of our main goals is to open the Repatriation Centers to democratic mass organizations and political party representatives. Independent women's organizations should inspect these places. These places should not be left to the mercy of the state. Because women staying there cannot reach a lawyer properly, and when they do, they do not think that there will be a solution. They face the risk of being killed. And when they complain, they are sent back to their countries. Another problem is that migrant and refugee women living here have guest status. All those coming from outside Europe have guest status. The government talks about this as something positive, but guest status means that they cannot use their rights arising from international agreements.” 

 

LABOR EXPLOITATION AND VIOLENCE 

 

Özgül Saki stated that one of the most important problems faced by migrant and refugee women is labor exploitation and that most of the women who are forced to work in precarious jobs are officially unregistered. Noting that work permits are not guaranteed by the state, Özgül Saki said that work permits are granted if the bosses agree. “This is a big problem for women. Bosses take women's identity cards and passports and do not give them back, saying that they will get a work permit. This leaves women open to attacks and harassment. We have prepared a legislative proposal for work permits for migrants and refugees. Work permits should be in the hands of unions and the ministry, not between the two lips of the boss,” Özgül Saki said.

 

UNION PROPOSAL

 

Regarding what needs to be done to interfere with the existing labor exploitation, Özgül Saki stated the following: “Refugee-immigrant women should be able to form unions. Here, too, the existing unions have a great job to do. Like organizing migrant and refugee women and making them union members. They are very weak, they are almost never interested in this issue. We want to put a little pressure on the unions. Please let's organize together. Let migrant refugees be your members in their workplaces. We are saying that you impose this on the state.”

 

GIRLS

 

Özgül Saki said that another issue is the problems faced by refugee girls: “In a place where there is so much racism, violence against women and sexual assault, families do not want to send their children to school. Because they are exposed to both racism and harassment. This is why girls are disconnected from education. What does it mean to disconnect from education? It means preventing the interaction of living together in society. Early marriage is also very common. What is being done is to get them married as soon as possible so that they can be safe. However, we say that it is not safe, it is a matter of child abuse. We are also collecting data on this.” 

 

REFUGEE POLICY MUST BE ESTABLISHED

 

Özgül Saki said that opposition to war is the first responsibility for a coherent policy on migrants and refugees and continued as follows: “We have to create the conditions for a common life in interaction with migrants who come here because of a war they did not cause. We aim to establish a link between migrant and refugee women and politics and to fight politically together. Most importantly, migrant refugee women and girls should be made a fundamental political issue in the policies of all segments who want equality, freedom and peace in this country. As the DEM Party Women's Assembly, we put the struggle together in front of us and say 'everyone has to make the migrant refugee issue a basic policy and fight for it'.”