EXPERIENCES OF LGBT REFUGEES IN TURKEY (2006)
Alaa, 27 years old – Hamood 47 years old, Palestine
In 2000 I travelled to Israel from Nablus. At a sauna I met Hamood. He was also from Nablus we got in contact with each other later. When my mother died I got alone and I had no one to care about me except Hamood. I really love him and need him in my life.
He was married and had some children. He is a gay but because of our society we can’t stay for a long time and our family usually insists us to marry. Every one is curious about our relations and I couldn't say to them that Hamood is my partner. However, his wife understood something about our relations. Our relatives said to me, “how you would like to be alone in your life? You don't even have wife or mother to make food for you or take care of you.”
You know, we don't have any government to defend us and cares about its people. There are a lot of terrorists and Cherice groups. One of them is “Kataib Shohada Al-Aqsa.” They use to cover their face with a piece of clothing.
One day I and Hamood were in an elevator and were kissing each other. The guys of “Kataib Shohada Al-Aqsa” entered suddenly and shouted at us. They took our ID cards and threatened to come to us later.
We have just entered to Turkey. Here people are not so different from Arabic countries. They do not accept LGBTs. At police centre they laughed at us when I was describing my troubles in Palestine.
In Palestine, as I said before, there are a lot of Islamic groups and most of them are fundamentalist. There is just an organization in Israel which is “Open House” that care about LGBT people.
I got violated in my own country, Palestine. I and my partner were at my home, and, as usual, had sexual relationship. Because my family and Hamood’s family got suspected about us, they let “Kataib Shohada Al-aqsa” know about us. We were naked at bed when the guys broke the door and rushed into our home. I could not escape and they caught us. They violated me and entered a mop into my buttock. It was so horrible an event and I can not forget it. I can't, I really can't, return to Palestine.… (Alaa cries..)
I have applied to the UNHCR but have not recognized me for refugee status. I don't want and I can't come back to Palestine. I would prefer to commit suicide and kill myself, but not to go back to Palestine..
Amir, 22 years old, Iranian
I am a homosexual and because of my life I had a lot of dangers in my own country. This made me leave my native country and live in exile.
Right now I am in the second country because Turkey is not a country which accepts refugees. I need to be replaced to another country. Being a foreigner in Turkey is hard. I don't know Turkish language. I didn't know any place or any person to help me. I have had a lot of stress and people pointing at me when I walk on street and a lot of problems for in each moment.
I was called a “fag” in my own country and also here in Turkey. People of my country can not accept me as a homosexual. I have received torture and persecution from the police. The government sentenced me to being whipped and paying fine. All for my being a gay. The situation is so critical in Iran. "Basij," the Islamic Civil Police, is allowed to rush to any private party and attack to anyone with this gay sense. In such a situation as this, how can we have a group or organization to defend us?!
My family didn't know about my being gay, but, after my being arrested the police explained to my family that I was a homosexual. My family had dreams for me that, being a 21-year-old guy, I would marry or something like this. But, after being arrested, they understood that their dream will not get realized. When they see that, they use their religion to refuse me and condemn me to death penalty. They will not understand me.
Yes, I am recognized as a refugee by the UNHCR because of all persecutions that I have received.
I think, here in Turkey, gays don't have any problem with the government but people don't want to accept us or don't know what homosexuality is, however, for me, is different because I am both foreigner and homosexual.
I should say that wherever I go I feel myself as the Cyrus's son. I am son of the Cyrus Human Rights Charter. I have come from the land of poetry and literature and I really would love go back there, but, only if I could live freely and have my own human rights. Then, I would like being back in Iran and kiss its ground.
Ferzad, Iranian, 30 years old
My family are military. I lived in Sanandaj- Kordestan province. My family usually beat me and even one day they broke my teeth. They separated me from my transgender friends. I used to work in a milk company but just because of my appearance other workers offered me to have sex with them. My family used to take my money to save for me but they did not give it back to me because they thought maybe I would go and get an operation. My brother said that he would like to get married but because of me people refuse him. I tried to suicide two times by burning myself and also taking medicine.
In Iran, the government shows us the tip of a mountain and says to us that you will be rich, that and you are free. But, no one says to us that it is just a mirage . I think transsexuals in Iran are artificially dulled because they can’t act freely, only as a sex machine. We cant get married because we can’t get pregnant. We can’t change our ID completely.
I feel myself as a woman but there are no associations to assist us. I wear woman’s clothing but here in Van, people point out to me and laugh or sometimes men drive car straight at me. Our neighbours went to my home owner and asked him to force me to check out of my home.
The Governor sent me to an hotel. They wanted to help me but those people who wanted to help took me to the hotel and wanted to abuse me! I went to the hotel but all the personnel came to me and wanted me to have sex with them. I escaped from there. Here in Van, Ms. Bedia really helped us and cared about us. She asked the Police Centre to let us go for her signature with the women refugees.
I am 30 years old and have studied computer and math. I would like to go to a country to be free, to a place which accept me how I enjoy to be.
Hamid, Afghan, 30 years old
I have escaped from Afghanistan for five years. There are a lot of presssure from family, Ghabile and society. At that time, Taliban were in power. I lived at a village in the North of Kabul. The Islamic government did not accept me as a gay however in our country government can not do any thing if our Ghabile say that some thing is not true. No one can change it. They think like people about 1400 years ago. I mean the prophet time.
There was a boy in our Ghabile about 15 years ago. He was 20 years old. He had sex with a man and, because of death dangers, he escaped to another city, but his family found him and killed him in Afghanistan.
I think the democracy cannot do anything about this and, also, the US army is not interested in doing anything against this situation because the US is afraid of becoming like Russia's previous situation in Afghanistan. My family were Muslim but I studied Darwinism and I think I am a Darwinist.
I studied pharmacology at Kabul University but could not stay there. I escaped to Iran and waited there, but the lifestyle situation in Iran is nice, but for gay life is terrible. Then I escaped again to Turkey. Unfortunately UNHCR did not accept me and I wrote an appeal letter to the UNHCR and they have not sent me any answer.
I am a gay and by general appearance no one would know this about me. But, people like to persecute gays. I can not marry a girl. I wish I could but I know that I cant make her happy.
Some days ago, someone on the street threatened me with a gun and put me in a car. They forced met to have sex with them. They injured me and it was terrible. They threw me out from the car and I told the UNHCR but they just say, “wait, and wait...
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and LGBT Issues in Turkey
When and why UNHCR was established?
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) provides protection and assistance to the world's refugees. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency was created by the United Nations General Assembly and began work in 1951, initially aiding more than one million European refugees in the aftermath of World War II.
Over the following decades, as the number of uprooted people grew around the globe, its mandate was extended every five years. In December 2003, the U.N. General Assembly decided to remove the time limitation on UNHCR's mandate. In 2005, the number of people 'of concern' to UNHCR was 19.2 million worldwide, an increase of 13 percent over the previous year's 17 million. This increase was due mainly to a rise in the number of internally displaced persons and stateless people helped by the agency.
People of concern to UNHCR include not only refugees, but related groups such as asylum seekers, refugees returning home, stateless people and some, but not all, of the estimated 25 million people who are displaced within their own countries, often known as internally displaced persons (IDPs). The worldwide total of uprooted people, including those not covered by UNHCR's mandate, is estimated at more than 40 million*or one in every 136 people on earth.
During its lifetime, UNHCR has helped more than 50 million people successfully restart their lives, earning two Nobel Peace Prizes in the process in 1954 and 1981.
The current High Commissioner for Refugees is António Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister who assumed his post on 15 June 2005. He is the organization's tenth High Commissioner. He reports verbally to the Economic and Social Council on coordination aspects of the agency's work, and submits a written report annually to the U.N. General Assembly on the overall work of UNHCR. The High Commissioner's programs are approved and supervised by UNHCR's Executive Committee, currently composed of 68 member countries.
The agency's founding mandate defines a refugee as a person who "owing to a 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/her nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country." Regional instruments such as the 1969 Organization of African Unity Refugee Convention and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration in Latin America expanded that mandate to include persons who have fled because of war or civil conflict.
UNHCR's most important responsibility, known as "international protection," is to ensure respect for the basic human rights of these refugees, including the possibility for them to seek asylum and to ensure that no one is returned involuntarily to a country where he or she has reason to fear persecution. The organization promotes international refugee agreements, monitors government compliance with international law and provides material assistance such as food, water, shelter and medical care to fleeing civilians.
UNHCR also seeks one of three durable solutions for refugees. Voluntary repatriation to their original homes is the preferred solution for most of them. But this is not always possible, and in those cases UNHCR helps people to try to rebuild their lives elsewhere either in the countries where they first sought asylum or in a third country willing to accept them for resettlement.
UNHCR's programs are financed by voluntary contributions, mainly from governments, but also from other groups, including private citizens and organizations. It receives a limited contribution from the United Nations regular budget, some 2 percent of the total which covers a fraction of its administrative costs.
In 2005, UNHCR's revised budget was $1.42 billion, including supplementary programs. Among major contributors were the United States ($323 million), Japan ($95 million), the European Commission ($86 million) and Sweden ($85 million). The 2006 budget, including supplementary programs in Africa, amounts to $1.22 billion.
In January 2006, UNHCR had a total of 6,697 staff members regular as well as temporary in 261 offices located in 117 countries. More than 85 percent of them were in the field, often in remote and dangerous locations. Among UNHCR's major regular assistance programs in 2006 are projects in Chad/Darfur, Afghanistan, Liberia, Great Lakes, Kenya, Serbia-Montenegro and Angola. As humanitarian crises have become more complex, UNHCR has expanded both the number and types of organizations it works with, including United Nations sister agencies and some 645 non-governmental organizations.
What does UNHCR do in Turkey?
UNHCR's longstanding partnership with the Government of Turkey reflects a shared sense of responsibility for providing protection and care to refugees. UNHCR has maintained a continuous presence in Turkey since 1960, although its role has evolved constantly in response to the changing nature the refugee situation in the country.
UNHCR's current programmes are shaped by Turkey's decision to maintain the "geographic limitation" which restricts its obligations under the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees to persons uprooted by events in Europe. While formally excluding them from the protection of the Convention, Turkey nevertheless provides non-European refugees with temporary asylum, pending UNHCR's efforts to secure a solution for them elsewhere. UNHCR helps make this system work by advising the Government on the protection needs of every individual non-European asylum-seeker, meeting their basic needs for food, shelter, health care and education and finding resettlement opportunities abroad for those who qualify as refugees.
Refugee status determination and resettlement are individualized, labour-intensive activities, with the consequence that staffing and related administrative costs account for a significant portion of UNHCR's Turkey annual budget. UNHCR does spend nearly one-quarter of its resources annually on direct assistance to refugees and asylum-seekers and related counseling and psycho-social support services. UNHCR's NGO implementing partners for these programmes are the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), the Human Resources Development Foundation (HRDF) and the Association for Solidarity with Asylum-Seekers and Migrants (ASAM).
UNHCR has enjoyed close cooperation with the Government of Turkey on refugee law training and other asylum system development activities for several years. Joint training programmes initiated with the Ministry of the Interior's General Directorate of Security in 1998 have expanded progressively, and several hundred Turkish officials now attend refugee protection seminars and training programmes implemented by others, such as ICMC and the German Federal Office for Foreign Refugees.
UNHCR has extensive experience with asylum system development in the context of EU accession. In each of the new EU Member States, UNHCR was a key advisor on implementation of the EU asylum acquis, including the development of laws, policies and institutions for refugee status determination, reception and accommodation and integration. Building upon its long history of cooperation with the Turkish government on asylum matters, UNHCR Turkey recently established a new Asylum System and Transition Planning Unit, in order to provide greater support for ongoing efforts to design and establish the new national asylum system.
UNHCR's annual budget for Turkey is comparatively large, particularly in relation to the number of refugees and asylum-seekers in the country. The Turkey country programme, therefore, cannot claim any greater share of UNHCR's global resources. Nearly all of the funds provided from UNHCR's global budget are dedicated to refugee status determination, restettlement and other essential protection work, as well as to life-sustaining assistance programmes.
UNHCR Turkey's annual programme budget for 2005 was US$ 6,275,605. More than US$ 1.4 million is dedicated to meeting the basic needs of non-European refugees and asylum-seekers for food, shelter, medical care, education and travel assistance and to related counseling programmes.
Does UNHCR have any mandate for LGBT people?
As I said before, UNHCR's founding mandate defines a refugee as a person who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion,...." The expression in this definition, namely, "...membership of a particular social group.." is a protection tool for UNHCR for homosexuals as well as other special groups, if they are outside of their county of origin due to the risk of persecution or discrimination. Unfortunately in some countries, some groups face persecution because of their sexual preferences. In some cases, the state acts as an agent of persecution against certain groups, including homosexuals. In other cases, due to cultural prejudices, one part of the community acts in a way to violate the basic human rights of other part and the state is unable or unwilling to protect the group under the attack. In both cases, if a person leaves the country of origin to seek asylum in another country, that person deserves international protection and should enjoy all the rights that according to international refugee law a refugee should enjoy. In Turkey, our offices receive such claims and processes them according to the international standards.
In 2000 I travelled to Israel from Nablus. At a sauna I met Hamood. He was also from Nablus we got in contact with each other later. When my mother died I got alone and I had no one to care about me except Hamood. I really love him and need him in my life.
He was married and had some children. He is a gay but because of our society we can’t stay for a long time and our family usually insists us to marry. Every one is curious about our relations and I couldn't say to them that Hamood is my partner. However, his wife understood something about our relations. Our relatives said to me, “how you would like to be alone in your life? You don't even have wife or mother to make food for you or take care of you.”
You know, we don't have any government to defend us and cares about its people. There are a lot of terrorists and Cherice groups. One of them is “Kataib Shohada Al-Aqsa.” They use to cover their face with a piece of clothing.
One day I and Hamood were in an elevator and were kissing each other. The guys of “Kataib Shohada Al-Aqsa” entered suddenly and shouted at us. They took our ID cards and threatened to come to us later.
We have just entered to Turkey. Here people are not so different from Arabic countries. They do not accept LGBTs. At police centre they laughed at us when I was describing my troubles in Palestine.
In Palestine, as I said before, there are a lot of Islamic groups and most of them are fundamentalist. There is just an organization in Israel which is “Open House” that care about LGBT people.
I got violated in my own country, Palestine. I and my partner were at my home, and, as usual, had sexual relationship. Because my family and Hamood’s family got suspected about us, they let “Kataib Shohada Al-aqsa” know about us. We were naked at bed when the guys broke the door and rushed into our home. I could not escape and they caught us. They violated me and entered a mop into my buttock. It was so horrible an event and I can not forget it. I can't, I really can't, return to Palestine.… (Alaa cries..)
I have applied to the UNHCR but have not recognized me for refugee status. I don't want and I can't come back to Palestine. I would prefer to commit suicide and kill myself, but not to go back to Palestine..
Amir, 22 years old, Iranian
I am a homosexual and because of my life I had a lot of dangers in my own country. This made me leave my native country and live in exile.
Right now I am in the second country because Turkey is not a country which accepts refugees. I need to be replaced to another country. Being a foreigner in Turkey is hard. I don't know Turkish language. I didn't know any place or any person to help me. I have had a lot of stress and people pointing at me when I walk on street and a lot of problems for in each moment.
I was called a “fag” in my own country and also here in Turkey. People of my country can not accept me as a homosexual. I have received torture and persecution from the police. The government sentenced me to being whipped and paying fine. All for my being a gay. The situation is so critical in Iran. "Basij," the Islamic Civil Police, is allowed to rush to any private party and attack to anyone with this gay sense. In such a situation as this, how can we have a group or organization to defend us?!
My family didn't know about my being gay, but, after my being arrested the police explained to my family that I was a homosexual. My family had dreams for me that, being a 21-year-old guy, I would marry or something like this. But, after being arrested, they understood that their dream will not get realized. When they see that, they use their religion to refuse me and condemn me to death penalty. They will not understand me.
Yes, I am recognized as a refugee by the UNHCR because of all persecutions that I have received.
I think, here in Turkey, gays don't have any problem with the government but people don't want to accept us or don't know what homosexuality is, however, for me, is different because I am both foreigner and homosexual.
I should say that wherever I go I feel myself as the Cyrus's son. I am son of the Cyrus Human Rights Charter. I have come from the land of poetry and literature and I really would love go back there, but, only if I could live freely and have my own human rights. Then, I would like being back in Iran and kiss its ground.
Ferzad, Iranian, 30 years old
My family are military. I lived in Sanandaj- Kordestan province. My family usually beat me and even one day they broke my teeth. They separated me from my transgender friends. I used to work in a milk company but just because of my appearance other workers offered me to have sex with them. My family used to take my money to save for me but they did not give it back to me because they thought maybe I would go and get an operation. My brother said that he would like to get married but because of me people refuse him. I tried to suicide two times by burning myself and also taking medicine.
In Iran, the government shows us the tip of a mountain and says to us that you will be rich, that and you are free. But, no one says to us that it is just a mirage . I think transsexuals in Iran are artificially dulled because they can’t act freely, only as a sex machine. We cant get married because we can’t get pregnant. We can’t change our ID completely.
I feel myself as a woman but there are no associations to assist us. I wear woman’s clothing but here in Van, people point out to me and laugh or sometimes men drive car straight at me. Our neighbours went to my home owner and asked him to force me to check out of my home.
The Governor sent me to an hotel. They wanted to help me but those people who wanted to help took me to the hotel and wanted to abuse me! I went to the hotel but all the personnel came to me and wanted me to have sex with them. I escaped from there. Here in Van, Ms. Bedia really helped us and cared about us. She asked the Police Centre to let us go for her signature with the women refugees.
I am 30 years old and have studied computer and math. I would like to go to a country to be free, to a place which accept me how I enjoy to be.
Hamid, Afghan, 30 years old
I have escaped from Afghanistan for five years. There are a lot of presssure from family, Ghabile and society. At that time, Taliban were in power. I lived at a village in the North of Kabul. The Islamic government did not accept me as a gay however in our country government can not do any thing if our Ghabile say that some thing is not true. No one can change it. They think like people about 1400 years ago. I mean the prophet time.
There was a boy in our Ghabile about 15 years ago. He was 20 years old. He had sex with a man and, because of death dangers, he escaped to another city, but his family found him and killed him in Afghanistan.
I think the democracy cannot do anything about this and, also, the US army is not interested in doing anything against this situation because the US is afraid of becoming like Russia's previous situation in Afghanistan. My family were Muslim but I studied Darwinism and I think I am a Darwinist.
I studied pharmacology at Kabul University but could not stay there. I escaped to Iran and waited there, but the lifestyle situation in Iran is nice, but for gay life is terrible. Then I escaped again to Turkey. Unfortunately UNHCR did not accept me and I wrote an appeal letter to the UNHCR and they have not sent me any answer.
I am a gay and by general appearance no one would know this about me. But, people like to persecute gays. I can not marry a girl. I wish I could but I know that I cant make her happy.
Some days ago, someone on the street threatened me with a gun and put me in a car. They forced met to have sex with them. They injured me and it was terrible. They threw me out from the car and I told the UNHCR but they just say, “wait, and wait...
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and LGBT Issues in Turkey
When and why UNHCR was established?
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) provides protection and assistance to the world's refugees. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency was created by the United Nations General Assembly and began work in 1951, initially aiding more than one million European refugees in the aftermath of World War II.
Over the following decades, as the number of uprooted people grew around the globe, its mandate was extended every five years. In December 2003, the U.N. General Assembly decided to remove the time limitation on UNHCR's mandate. In 2005, the number of people 'of concern' to UNHCR was 19.2 million worldwide, an increase of 13 percent over the previous year's 17 million. This increase was due mainly to a rise in the number of internally displaced persons and stateless people helped by the agency.
People of concern to UNHCR include not only refugees, but related groups such as asylum seekers, refugees returning home, stateless people and some, but not all, of the estimated 25 million people who are displaced within their own countries, often known as internally displaced persons (IDPs). The worldwide total of uprooted people, including those not covered by UNHCR's mandate, is estimated at more than 40 million*or one in every 136 people on earth.
During its lifetime, UNHCR has helped more than 50 million people successfully restart their lives, earning two Nobel Peace Prizes in the process in 1954 and 1981.
The current High Commissioner for Refugees is António Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister who assumed his post on 15 June 2005. He is the organization's tenth High Commissioner. He reports verbally to the Economic and Social Council on coordination aspects of the agency's work, and submits a written report annually to the U.N. General Assembly on the overall work of UNHCR. The High Commissioner's programs are approved and supervised by UNHCR's Executive Committee, currently composed of 68 member countries.
The agency's founding mandate defines a refugee as a person who "owing to a 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/her nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country." Regional instruments such as the 1969 Organization of African Unity Refugee Convention and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration in Latin America expanded that mandate to include persons who have fled because of war or civil conflict.
UNHCR's most important responsibility, known as "international protection," is to ensure respect for the basic human rights of these refugees, including the possibility for them to seek asylum and to ensure that no one is returned involuntarily to a country where he or she has reason to fear persecution. The organization promotes international refugee agreements, monitors government compliance with international law and provides material assistance such as food, water, shelter and medical care to fleeing civilians.
UNHCR also seeks one of three durable solutions for refugees. Voluntary repatriation to their original homes is the preferred solution for most of them. But this is not always possible, and in those cases UNHCR helps people to try to rebuild their lives elsewhere either in the countries where they first sought asylum or in a third country willing to accept them for resettlement.
UNHCR's programs are financed by voluntary contributions, mainly from governments, but also from other groups, including private citizens and organizations. It receives a limited contribution from the United Nations regular budget, some 2 percent of the total which covers a fraction of its administrative costs.
In 2005, UNHCR's revised budget was $1.42 billion, including supplementary programs. Among major contributors were the United States ($323 million), Japan ($95 million), the European Commission ($86 million) and Sweden ($85 million). The 2006 budget, including supplementary programs in Africa, amounts to $1.22 billion.
In January 2006, UNHCR had a total of 6,697 staff members regular as well as temporary in 261 offices located in 117 countries. More than 85 percent of them were in the field, often in remote and dangerous locations. Among UNHCR's major regular assistance programs in 2006 are projects in Chad/Darfur, Afghanistan, Liberia, Great Lakes, Kenya, Serbia-Montenegro and Angola. As humanitarian crises have become more complex, UNHCR has expanded both the number and types of organizations it works with, including United Nations sister agencies and some 645 non-governmental organizations.
What does UNHCR do in Turkey?
UNHCR's longstanding partnership with the Government of Turkey reflects a shared sense of responsibility for providing protection and care to refugees. UNHCR has maintained a continuous presence in Turkey since 1960, although its role has evolved constantly in response to the changing nature the refugee situation in the country.
UNHCR's current programmes are shaped by Turkey's decision to maintain the "geographic limitation" which restricts its obligations under the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees to persons uprooted by events in Europe. While formally excluding them from the protection of the Convention, Turkey nevertheless provides non-European refugees with temporary asylum, pending UNHCR's efforts to secure a solution for them elsewhere. UNHCR helps make this system work by advising the Government on the protection needs of every individual non-European asylum-seeker, meeting their basic needs for food, shelter, health care and education and finding resettlement opportunities abroad for those who qualify as refugees.
Refugee status determination and resettlement are individualized, labour-intensive activities, with the consequence that staffing and related administrative costs account for a significant portion of UNHCR's Turkey annual budget. UNHCR does spend nearly one-quarter of its resources annually on direct assistance to refugees and asylum-seekers and related counseling and psycho-social support services. UNHCR's NGO implementing partners for these programmes are the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), the Human Resources Development Foundation (HRDF) and the Association for Solidarity with Asylum-Seekers and Migrants (ASAM).
UNHCR has enjoyed close cooperation with the Government of Turkey on refugee law training and other asylum system development activities for several years. Joint training programmes initiated with the Ministry of the Interior's General Directorate of Security in 1998 have expanded progressively, and several hundred Turkish officials now attend refugee protection seminars and training programmes implemented by others, such as ICMC and the German Federal Office for Foreign Refugees.
UNHCR has extensive experience with asylum system development in the context of EU accession. In each of the new EU Member States, UNHCR was a key advisor on implementation of the EU asylum acquis, including the development of laws, policies and institutions for refugee status determination, reception and accommodation and integration. Building upon its long history of cooperation with the Turkish government on asylum matters, UNHCR Turkey recently established a new Asylum System and Transition Planning Unit, in order to provide greater support for ongoing efforts to design and establish the new national asylum system.
UNHCR's annual budget for Turkey is comparatively large, particularly in relation to the number of refugees and asylum-seekers in the country. The Turkey country programme, therefore, cannot claim any greater share of UNHCR's global resources. Nearly all of the funds provided from UNHCR's global budget are dedicated to refugee status determination, restettlement and other essential protection work, as well as to life-sustaining assistance programmes.
UNHCR Turkey's annual programme budget for 2005 was US$ 6,275,605. More than US$ 1.4 million is dedicated to meeting the basic needs of non-European refugees and asylum-seekers for food, shelter, medical care, education and travel assistance and to related counseling programmes.
Does UNHCR have any mandate for LGBT people?
As I said before, UNHCR's founding mandate defines a refugee as a person who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion,...." The expression in this definition, namely, "...membership of a particular social group.." is a protection tool for UNHCR for homosexuals as well as other special groups, if they are outside of their county of origin due to the risk of persecution or discrimination. Unfortunately in some countries, some groups face persecution because of their sexual preferences. In some cases, the state acts as an agent of persecution against certain groups, including homosexuals. In other cases, due to cultural prejudices, one part of the community acts in a way to violate the basic human rights of other part and the state is unable or unwilling to protect the group under the attack. In both cases, if a person leaves the country of origin to seek asylum in another country, that person deserves international protection and should enjoy all the rights that according to international refugee law a refugee should enjoy. In Turkey, our offices receive such claims and processes them according to the international standards.