PRO ASYL Presseerklärung | Press Release
June 22, 1999
From Germany into the Turkish torture cellar
Kurdish refugees are taken into custody after deportation
to Turkey, tortured and prosecuted
PRO ASYL, Lower Saxonian Refugee Council and IPPNW demand postponement of deportations and a new situation report of the Foreign Office.
- Von Deutschland in den türkischen Folterkeller
Kurdische Flüchtlinge werden nach Abschiebung in die Türkei inhaftiert, gefoltert und angeklagt
PRO ASYL, Niedersächsischer Flüchtlingsrat und IPPNW fordern Abschiebemoratorium und neuen Lagebericht des Auswärtigen Amtes - From Germany into the Turkish torture cellar
Kurdish refugees are taken into custody after deportation to Turkey, tortured and prosecuted
PRO ASYL, Lower Saxonian Refugee Council and IPPNW demand postponement of deportations and a new situation report of the Foreign Office.
INFO
(partially translated)
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In February 1999 the Lower Saxonian Refugee Council and PRO ASYL introduced a documentation on the destiny of Kurds, who after their expulsion from Germany had been taken into custody, maltreated and tortured in Turkey.
Today both organisations present on a press conference in Frankfurt eight new cases of maltreatments and tortures of refugees, deported to Turkey after unsuccessful asylum applications and taken into custody there. At the same time the IHD organizes a press conference in Ankara dealing also with human rights violations of refugees deported from Germany.
PRO ASYL, the Lower Saxonian Refugee Council und the German Section of the International Physicians Organisation IPPNW call upon the Foreign Office, to present immediately a new situation report on the human rights situation in Turkey.
The organisations addressed their appeal to the Interior Ministers, to issue a deportation ban for Kurds from Turkey.
„If alone the Lower Saxonian Refugee Council and PRO ASYL were able to document for 1998/1999 more than 20 cases of systematic human rights violations, it means: „These are no single cases but a structural pattern of persecution: Deported Kurds are threatened with torture and persecution“, said Heiko Kauffmann, spokespersond of PRO ASYL.
Within the last months the situation has intensified further in Turkey. „After Abdullah Öcalan had been arrested the terror against members of the opposition and especially against Kurds Oppositionelle und insbesondere gegen Kurden increased“, said Claudia Gayer of the Lower Saxonian Refugee Council. Also the ad-hoc-situation report of the Foreign Office from 25 Februar 1999 would ask to bear in mind a „increased risk“ for deported Kurds, the previous assessment of the situation would however be particularly confirmed, so Kai Weber, General Secretary of the Lower Saxonian Refugee Council. He demanded the cancelation of the so-called German-Turkish Consultation Agreement, according to that the Turkish authorities inform the Germans on demand, if a concerned person is threatened in Turkey with criminal prosecution. This porcedure is highly doubtful, because it often draws only the attention of the Turkish authorities to „the deportee“ and because many arrests and investigations are made due to a vague suspicion or a denunciation.
Dr. Gisela Penteker, member of the executive committee ôf the Physicians Organisation IPPNW, explained, that after the arrest of Öcalan the state of health of many Kurdish clients, who are treated in psycho-social centers for refugees and torture victims or in psychiatric practices, has acutely deteriorated. Many clients listed in our inquiry are being treated due to their traumatisation from suffered torture. A deportation would include the danger of re-traumatisation.
