Key Migration Terms

“International Protection” stands for persons who, in situations where states are unable or unwilling to protect them, are outside their own country and who requests asylum in another country to live safely, not be sent to places that would infringe their security, and to benefit from fundamental human rights.

Temporary Protection stands for the protection provided for foreigners who have been forced to leave their country, who 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 and whose international protection requests cannot be taken under individual assessment.

Based on international literature, the protection status granted to Syrians who have come to Turkey in a mass influx is “Temporary Protection”. Turkey fulfills the following three main components of temporary protection and provides temporary protection to Syrians:

• Meeting the basic and urgent needs of persons coming to Turkey,
  Accepting persons in to the country through an open-door policy and
  Principle of non-refoulement

An asylum seeker is someone whose claim has not yet been finally decided on. 

Refugees are persons fleeing conflict or persecution.
The term refugee was first defined under international law in Article 1 of the 1951 Geneva Convention as follows: “a person who, owing to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his/her nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”
The definition of refugee in Article 61 of Law no. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection (LFIP) adopted in 2014 is similar to the Geneva Convention, except for the geographic limitation applied by Turkey. According to this definition; “A 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.”
According to this, persons who come from non-European countries like Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somali, and who seek asylum in Turkey cannot obtain refugee status due to the geographic restriction.

How a Conditional Refugee status is granted is explained in Article 62 of Law no. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection (LFIP) as follows:

“A 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.”

Regardless of a person’s legal status or the reasons causing that person to migrate, migrants are defined as persons who moves away from their place of usual residence, whether within a country or across an international border, temporarily or permanently.
Migrants may go to another country to improve their economic and social conditions and to have a better future. A migrant could be defined as a person who has not left his or her country to flee persecution, but has left for reasons such as education and employment and to maintain better living conditions. Migrants continue to benefit from the protection of their country of origin and travel according to the migration regimes of countries.

The term irregular migrant is used for persons who do not have any legal right to remain in the country to which they have migrated. Owing to entering the country illegally, violating conditions of entry or expiries of visa, persons who lack legal status in a transit or host country are considered as irregular migrants. This term should be preferred and used in replace of an illegal migrant in order to prevent migrants from being associated with a crime.

A person who leaves their country of origin and migrates somewhere else (to another country or city) for family or personal reasons, seeking better economic living conditions and material improvements in their livelihood. It is sometimes difficult to draw a line between these persons and refugees. For instance, aggravating livelihood and working conditions of an ethnic and religious group could be considered in both economic and social terms. Therefore, justifications identifying the person’s condition could appear to be purely economic, but threatening factors could also be indirectly involved.