The Reverse World: Refugee Chılderen’s Rıght To Educatıon

The Term “Refugee” in International Law

In international law, the term “refugee” refers to people who are outside of their country of nationality and who cannot return or do not want to return to their country of nationality because of having the fear of persecution for legitimate reasons such as their race, religion, nationality, particular social group that they belong to or the political opinion they have. The term “asylum seeker” refers to people seeking for international protection as a refugee without any acknowledged formal statute yet. The term ”immigrant” includes individuals and family members immigrating to another country or region to improve their both social and economical situations and to increase their expectations for the future. They might be defined as people who leave their country because of the fear of persecution for legitimate reasons but because of reasons such as education and job opportunities. 

According to UNCHR’s data, there are more than 50 million refugees in the whole world and 6.5 million of these people have been living as refugees for a very long time. 

2.5 million of these refugees are in Turkey. People who had to migrate from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Syria for five years carry the hope of a new life in Turkey. Turkey, which was only a transit country for refugees before the civil war in Syria, is now a country of defection. More than half of the 2 million registered refugees who had to migrate to Turkey from Syria are children and as of September 2015, 633 thousand of these children are in their school age. 

According to the 22. article of UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child that we became a part of in 1995, Turkey obliged to take the necessary precautions to ensure that all the refugee children in its territory are benefiting from the rights contained in the convention. So, to what extent does Turkey fulfil this obligation?

Rights Category

In the category of rights, while personal and political rights are “first-generation rights”; economic, social and cultural rights are “second-generation rights” and development and other solidarity rights are “third-generation rights”, the intersecting nature of education rights makes it harder to classify it within any of these categories. Although it is controversial which subcategories of cultural economic and social rights it is classified by, education right is often classified under the second generation rights.  

The reason why education right is under the second generation rights is that the full implementation of this right requires the active participation and funding of the government. 

The main reason for trying to protect the education right, which has a significant effect on society in terms of economic, social and political progress, with many international conventions is to create a standard of living worthy of human dignity. To serve this purpose, the following conventions and protocols have been put into effect. 

From War Zone to Lack of Fundamental Rights 

The right to education, which should be provided as an obligation based on international conventions and the constitution, is one of the fundamental rights that ensure the actualization of other rights of children. According to research conducted by UNESCO in 2011, Syrian children who cannot benefit from the right to education are under the greater risk of abuse and maltreatment, show more symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder such as uneasiness, stress, anxiety and hopelessness and experience some regressions on their physical and psychological developments. 

Although an important regulation that allows Syrian children to attend public schools was accepted in September 2014, there are still many obstacles against these children’s right to access their education. This situation leads Syrian families in Turkey to emigrate to other countries by taking all the risks and putting their life’s in danger. During this compulsory and compelling migration, these children are unfortunately losing their life’s on their way before they reach the country where they could get their education. It has not been so long since Alan Kurdi’s lifeless body that washed up on the shore was engraved on humanity’s memory. The Kurdi family had decided to emigrate to Canada so that Alan and his older brother could continue their education. However, it didn’t happen. Just like Alan, at least 70 children died as of October 2015 during the transition to another country.

The circular on the education of Syrian children, issued in 2014, made it possible for children to attend public schools or to attend Temporary Education Centers, where the Syrian curriculum is taught in Arabic but which is often paid due to lack of resources. However, despite this circular, as of September 2015, approximately 60 per cent of Syrian children cannot access any education. Syrian children who are included in the education system, on the other hand, are facing many problems, starting with the registration process.

A study that is conducted by a Bilgi University Child Studies Unit shows that even the Syrian children who have access to education cannot benefit from their right to education due to the lack of infrastructure and lack of constituting necessary support mechanisms. The Human Rights Watch report on the same subject states that even though the law allowing Syrian children to attend a public school has passed, basic barriers such as language barriers, social harmony problems and economic difficulties lead to violations of children’s right to education.

Education in Turkey for Migrant Children

According to the European Union Migrant Integration Policies Center’s report, although Turkey is a receiving country it has remained inadequate compared to other countries in producing policies for the education of immigrants. Although there are legal texts for the education of immigrants, the conditions for immigrant, asylum seeker and refugee children to access education is unfavourable. At the same time, there is no guidance or conditional instruction regarding the education of immigrants. Schools are not prepared for migrant education and no guidance is given to teachers for the education they will be given to immigrant children about the topics such as citizenship for intercultural education, human rights, discrimination against immigrants etc. The state of being ready for schools to immigrant education depends on the determination and planning of immigration policies. Following this purpose, the Ministry of National Education has tried to find some solutions by issuing circular letters on April 26, 2013, and September 26, 2013, and with various activities for the education problem of Syrians who had come to Turkey. Thanks to the Temporary Protection Regulation, which came into force in October 2014, Syrians gained access to health, education and social assistance services. After that, on October 23, 2014, with the circular numbered 2014/21 and titled Educational Services for Foreigners, some standards have been set and have been protected for education services to be provided to Syrian children. Moreover, it has been seen that for the first time plans for the education of refugees are included in the 2015-2019 strategic plan published by the Ministry of National Education.

Refugee Children’s School Enrollment Process in Turkey

Families of Syrian children who want to go to school in Turkey must first register their identity at the AFAD or the District Police Department. If the one who wants to enrol in a school does not have a passport, it is enough to give their personal identifying information; their fingerprints are taken, their photos are taken and the information they give is recorded. Foreigner Identification Card is given to the ones who have residence permits while Temporary Protection Identity Document is given to the ones who are under the temporary protection. However, this process is not that easy all the time, it starts becoming something that Syrians are struggling with because of the arbitrary or ignorant attitudes of the ones who are implementing the procedure. During the registry, some documents such as residence documents from the headman, rental contracts or utility bills that are impossible to procure can be demanded from Syrian families. Such difficulties pose an obstacle to the enrollment of children in a school. 

First of all, Syrian children and their families do not have enough information about enrolling in a school. Because of this reason, they cannot even apply for enrolling in a school. There are also various obstacles for the ones who try to enrol their children with the help of Turkish citizens who have the knowledge about this particular issue or with the help of other refugee families who have learned the process before. However, this time the head of schools may reject the children arbitrarily or ignorantly or they may request some kinds of documents that are not possible to procure. 

Most of the Syrian children who do not know any other language than Arabic, face language barriers in schools where education is in Turkish. Language is the basis of a child expressing himself at the basis of understanding and making sense of life. A child does not deem to have attained the right of education in a school where his mother tongue is not spoken. 

• Although it seems as if education is free, expenses such as transportation to school or stationery is pretty high. Due to the lack of work permits, Syrian families who either cannot work at all or work in very poor conditions as informal employees are obliged to take their children from school because they cannot afford these expenses. 

• Refugee children might get bullied by their peers, teachers or other children’s families at school. This leads these children to consent to bully they undergo or their families not to send them to school. Unheeded bullying affects the whole improvement of children negatively and brings children’s relation with life to a standstill.

• Apart from the temporary education centres, which are mostly paid, public schools do not have a separate curriculum suitable for Syrian children. They are obliged to switch to a different education system and this affects their academic success negatively.  

• Teachers do not have enough information about the refugee children or procedures that are needed to implement. They can fall behind in terms of avoiding the problems such as discrimination, exclusion, etc. that can occur in the classroom.

• Refugee children do not have any way to seek their rights against arbitrary attitudes and violations of rights encountered in the duration of education. This leads to impunity for violations of rights.  

I am writing for the days that we will be living in better conditions altogether. I wish it to be a light to someone and help them to reveal the light within.