On 22 July 2024*, at around 10:30 am, while on my way home in Istanbul’s Avcilar district, I was stopped by policemen who asked to see my residence ID, known as Ikamet in Turkish. My previous ID had expired at the end of April 2024, and I had applied for a new one, submitting all the required documents to the immigration authorities in early May.
Normally, one gets an update on their application in about two to three weeks, a month at most. In my case, I hadn’t heard back for over two months. By the time I was questioned by the police, I had been without an ID for nearly three months. I explained to the officers that I had followed all the necessary steps when my ID expired and that the delay was on the immigration authorities’ part.
They didn’t find my explanation satisfactory and told me they would take me to a large vetting center in the Esenyurt district, a nearby area known for its large foreign population. I was told to get inside a van that would transport me and others they apprehended to the center. For clarification, stopping foreigners to check their IDs is a regular procedure in the country.
The road to detention
In the van, the police frisked me and put all my personal effects—a watch, ring, wallet, and phone—into a plastic bag. I was told to sit in the back and wait for a couple of hours while they rounded up more foreigners in the neighborhood.
Five hours of doing nothing but sitting in the van, barred from using my phone and while fasting, proved incredibly boring and draining. After approximately three hours as the lone detainee, I was joined by two young men from Yemen. Two hours later, around 3:00 pm, the van finally left for the vetting center in Esenyurt.
We arrived at the Esenyurt center around 3:30 pm. The police had indicated that we would be processed quickly and likely be back home by early evening. However, instead of vetting us, they ordered us to board a large bus already filled with many foreigners.
The bus, we later learned, was taking us to Arnavutkoy, one of Istanbul’s largest foreigner detention centers near the city’s international airport. The bus was so packed with detainees that even the aisle was occupied.
Looking out, there was a visible mural with the Turkish and EU flags side by side and a message stating that the center was built courtesy of a joint Turkey-EU collaboration. The passengers were predominantly Arab nationals, including Yemenis, Iraqis, Egyptians, Syrians, and Palestinians. There were also nationals from countries like Turkmenistan, Pakistan, and a few West Africans.
We were told we would leave around 7:40 pm but ended up waiting for hours. The detainees conversed to pass the time and speculate on what would happen next. Some who had been detained before reassured the rest that they were usually released by nighttime, which provided some comfort.
To use the bathroom, we needed permission from a policeman at the bus entrance. The “bathroom” turned out to be the back of a tree, and the ground unbearably reeked of urine. When I returned, a Yemeni detainee jokingly asked about the bathroom, and my sarcastic reply made everyone laugh.
We weren’t allowed to perform ablution or pray outside when prayer times came. Those who had already performed ablution prayed in their seats, guessing the Qibla direction. There was little water and no food provided, which remained the case throughout our detention.
Some detainees requested cigarettes; some received them, some did not. We stayed at this center until 10:00 pm when the bus finally headed to the Arnavutkoy detention center, overcrowded with over 60 detainees.
Abuse and mistreatment
This was our final destination, a mega-center under the control of immigration authorities. It had many blocks, a police station, a vetting center, and, as rumored, a nearby military base. On the first night, more than 50 of us were crammed into a room no bigger than 10 x 5 meters. Sleeping was impossible; we were lucky if we found space to sit.
This is where I witnessed firsthand or heard directly about the mistreatments detainees endure. After disembarking, we were commanded to form long lines and await entry to a room where our fingerprints and photos were taken. We had to stand until called for processing, regardless of our health.
An old Egyptian man with bad knees couldn’t keep standing due to the pain. When he requested to sit, a policeman insulted him and threatened unpleasant consequences. The man eventually collapsed from pain. The policeman slapped him and, along with his colleagues, forcibly stood him up. The shouting and degrading insults from the police were constant and meant to intimidate the detainees.
On the morning of the second day, we heard loud quarreling and screams from a room in my line of sight. A detainee was arguing with a policeman. The detainee later explained that he was punished for refusing to follow some of the policeman’s orders, leading to a punishment that involved cleaning the room and a severe beatdown by multiple policemen. We could hear the screaming and beatdown for over 10 minutes.
Later that night, I saw the same detainee in a queue, his face bruised and unable to stand properly. That wasn’t where his troubles would end, as policemen would occasionally hit him for no reason for the rest of my detention. They didn’t take the fact that he refused their orders and hit one of them back when he was hit first too kindly.
Human Rights Watch reported that foreign nationals in Turkish removal centers face cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, including severe overcrowding and instances of physical abuse, with many asylum seekers subjected to administrative detention pending deportation.
Another Syrian detainee was held despite having a valid ID. I asked him how they could have done that – detain someone with a valid ID? “I am Syrian, they don’t need a reason”, he told me. “You guys (Non-Syrian foreigners) think you have it hard, wait till you see how they treat us Syrians”.
In an attempt to comfort him, I told him that after the processing is done, they would have to release him, as he has done nothing wrong. “I have a wife and kids to feed, releasing me will not make up for the days I will be held here and not with them,” he answered.
Nationals of Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Somalia I met told me they had signed deportation letters months ago desperately wanting to go back to their home countries and out of these centers, but were still detained, expecting to be kept for months.
When asked why, one told me he believed they were used by the Turkish government to extract funds from the EU. “We’re a cash cow for the Turkish government, which detains us and uses us to exact hefty amounts of money from the EU. Everyone is happy, the EU because it doesn’t have to worry about potential immigrants, and Turkey because it gets billions to stabilize its troubled economy.”
“The longer one stays,” he added, “the more money they get.”
Another major issue was the lack of phone access to inform families and friends. During my three-day detention, I was only allowed to use my phone on the last day.
Outsourcing and xenophobia
This center and others like it are products of a border control outsourcing scheme by the EU, which provides billions of dollars to countries in close geographical proximity like Turkey, Morocco, and Tunisia to prevent and stop immigration to Europe. The EU benefits from reduced migration and plausible deniability, while these countries weave it into their domestic agendas, often treating detainees in ways that violate basic human rights.
Since 2016, Turkey has received over 9 billion Euros from the EU for this scheme. Many, however, have criticized the lack of transparency about how the funds were used, with some accusing the country of using most of it for its local economy and a fraction for the intended purposes resulting in neglected and substandard detention facilities.
These centers have been criticized for failing to meet basic human rights standards and for the harsh treatment of detainees by several human rights groups.
In Turkey, a hyper-nationalist state with a rising xenophobia that has drastically spiked in the last decade, the theme of “driving out and/or containing foreigners” is central to elections.
Opposition parties recently swept most of the votes in mayoral contests across major cities, largely fueled by brazen xenophobia. The ruling party, taking note of this trend, has also intensified measures against foreigners, including students. The process of obtaining a basic residency ID has become increasingly difficult, with new, often hard-to-obtain documents being added to the requirements each year.
The EU has a responsibility to ensure that its funds are used for their intended purposes. It must hold recipient governments it’s delegating to police its borders accountable, ensuring they eliminate all forms of mistreatment towards detainees.
*Some of the dates in the piece have been altered to protect the author’s identity.
