The Council of Europe Project on “Protection of Rights of Refugees and Migrants in Turkey” organized the seminar “The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) Standards related to Detention Conditions for refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers in Removal Centres” in Ankara, Turkey, on 6-7 February 2018.

The main objective of the seminar was to develop the skills and knowledge of the staff of the Directorate General for Migration Management (DGMM) - the project's partner and main beneficiary of the Project carrying out the tasks and procedures related to foreigners’ entry into, stay in, exit and removal from Turkey, international protection, temporary protection and protection of victims of human trafficking and thus, to ensure them to fully respect the human rights of migrants and refugees, as guaranteed by Council of Europe instruments.

The Seminar was the first activity of the Project that is funded by Denmark and the Human Rights Trust Fund and implemented by the Council of Europe using the Council of Europe’s Programme on Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP). The participants of this activity included experts and lawyers of DGMM from central and provincial units, a number of judges from Ministry of Justice and experts from UNHCR. The Seminar gave the participants intensive exposure to the international standards on protection of refugees and migrants with a particular view to child asylum seekers and refugees - as well as the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (the European Court) and its reflections into the Turkish Constitutional Court decisions, through presentations and discussions led by multiple experts. The seminar also provided the participants with information on the HELP courses, especially on “Asylum and ECHR” and “Combating Trafficking in Human Beings”, and the HELP methodology. The participants reflected on shared and different experiences in an open and interactive atmosphere. They exchanged personal work experiences, perspectives, success stories as well as challenges they confronted due to the fact of Turkey having the highest number of refugees in the world. They expressed their interest in being a model country with their best practices in the future.

The seminar started with the welcoming speeches from Abdullah Ayaz, Acting Director General-Directorate General of Migration Management, Michael Ingledow, Head of Ankara Programme Office-Council of Europe, Paolo Artini, UNHCR Deputy Representative - UNHCR Representation in Turkey, and Svend Olling, Ambassador of Denmark-Embassy of Denmark.

During the first day of the Seminar, the CPT Standards related to detention conditions in removal centres concerning refugees and migrants were presented by Michael Neurauter, the Head of Division I under the Secretariat of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Convention’s role in improving conditions relating to detention and the European Court's case-law on the detention of asylum-seekers, migrants, refugees was presented by Gizem Ulic, lawyer working for the European Court; The Constitutional Court’s case-law on the individual applications brought by asylum-seekers, migrants, refugees was shared by Serhat Mahmutoglu, a rapporteur judge working for the Constitutional Court of Turkey.

On the second day, Eric Svanidze, lawyer and a former CPT member, analysed the prohibition of ill-treatment and detention conditions for migrants and refugees. The Council of Europe’s codification studies on administrative detention of migrants were explained by Gamze Gül Cakir, a lawyer from DGMM and a member of the Committee of Experts on Administrative Detention of Migrants (CJ-DAM) while the case law of the European Court on current detention practices and alternatives for child asylum seekers and refugees was presented by Duygu Köksal, lawyer from Istanbul Bar Association. Finally, the HELP methodology and HELP online courses were presented by Seran Karatari Köstü, judge and senior project officer of the Council of Europe HELP Programme.