Turkish Labor Law
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Refugees, conditional refugees, subsidiary protection, applicants of international protection, and over 2 million Syrians which are “under temporary protection”.
All of these terms and definitions in the asylum system of Turkey are causing a conceptual confusion, and are inconsistent with those of international conventions and laws.
Turkey, a signatory to the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol with geographical-limitation, faced with an overwhelming flow of asylum seekers during the last five years and the “Law on Foreigners and International Protection, No. 6458” that came into effect in April 2014 to provide a holistic approach to the issue.
However, as stated above the law includes many types of statutes, and asylum seekers depending upon their status are treated differently with respect to their working and employment conditions. And main distinction between these people is that, some are “under international protection” and some (mainly Syrians) are “under temporary protection”.
FOREIGNERS UNDER INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION
Refugees:
Person who as a result of events occurring in European countries and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his citizenship and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it, shall be granted refugee status upon completion of the refugee status determination process.
Refugees, asylum-seekers from European countries or stateless persons, who are in small numbers in Turkey may work independently or be employed without a work permit, upon being granted the status.
Conditional refugees:
Person who as a result of events occurring outside European countries and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it, shall be granted conditional refugee status upon completion of the refugee status determination process. Conditional refugees shall be allowed to reside in Turkey temporarily until they are resettled to a third country.
Conditional refugees need a work permit to work or be employed in Turkey.
Subsidiary Protection:
A foreigner or a stateless person, who neither could be qualified as a refugee nor as a conditional refugee, shall nevertheless be granted subsidiary protection upon the status determination because if returned to the country of origin or country of [former] habitual residence would:
a) be sentenced to death or face the execution of the death penalty;
b) face torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
c) face serious threat to himself or herself by reason of indiscriminate violence in situations of international or nationwide armed conflict.
Foreigner or a stateless person under subsidiary protection may work independently or be employed without a work permit, upon being granted the status.
Applicants of International Protection
A person applied for the international protection status but not yet qualified for it need a work permit to work or be employed.
For the procedures and principles governing the employment of the applicants or the beneficiaries of international protection status please see the article titled NEW REGULATION FOR REFUGEES in our website.
FOREIGNERS UNDER TEMPORARY PROTECTION
This is the status covers mainly the Syrians and described in Article 91 of above mentioned Law as the foreigners who forced to leave their country, cannot return to the country they have left, and have arrived at or crossed the borders of Turkey in a mass influx situation seeking immediate and temporary protection, but cannot be given the individual international protection status.
You can reach the working conditions of Syrians from this link in our website.
