Parties reach full agreement on refugees’ rights

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

According to the draft of the article titled ‘The situation of foreigners,’ the right to seek asylum will be arranged legally. DHA photo

All of the members of Parliament’s Constitution Reconciliation Commission have reached full agreement as to how to draft an article covering the situation and rights of refugees.

The agreement among deputies from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Peace and Development Party (BDP) came on Sept. 25 during a meeting presided over by Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek.
According to the draft of the article titled “The situation of foreigners,” the right to seek asylum will be arranged legally, taking liabilities stemming from international agreements Turkey has signed into consideration. A foreigner who takes shelter in Turkey as a refugee and who would be subject to the death penalty or ill-treatment if required to return to their home country would not be extradited.

The draft is known as the “Hashemi arrangement” because it coincides with Ankara’s recent refusal to extradite Iraq’s fugitive Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, who is currently residing in Turkey. Al-Hashemi remains in Turkey in defiance of the verdict of an Iraqi court that sentenced him to death in absentia on charges that he ran death squads in Iraq.The CHP has still not handed over its proposal on the article regarding the definition of citizenship to the commission.