INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATION; 

1) Fight against human trafficking in Palermo Protocol

Turkey signed “ United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime’’ and its supplementing Protocol  “Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children’’ on 13 December 2000, which was opened for conclusion in Palermo on 12 December 2000

Conclusion of the mentioned protocol was approved by TGNA with the laws no. 4800 and 4804 of 30.01.2003, and it was incorporated into our national law in Official Gazette of 04.02.2003.

Goals of this protocol are stated as follows (m.2);

Paying special attention to women and children and preventing and combating human trafficking,

Protecting the victims of such trafficking by respecting their human rights, and helping them,

Improving the cooperation among the Party States with the aim of achieving these goals.

Necessary legal arrangements were made within the scope of the mentioned protocol with the aim of efficient execution of the fight against human trafficking in our country.

2) Other International Legislation

a) Turkey became a party to the  International Convention of 30 September 1921 for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children on 15 April 1937.
b) Turkey signed League of Nations Slavery Convention of  25 September 1926 on 14 January 1955.
c) International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention  No. 105 on Abolition of Forced Labour Convention was adopted by Turkey on 29 March 1961.
ç) Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery  came into force on 17 July 1964 in Turkey.
d) Turkey became a party to  Convention of 18 December 1979 on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women  on 20 December 1985.
e) Turkey is a party to the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Turkey adopted the Convention on 04 April 1995. As per Articles 34 and 35 of the Convention, the countries that are parties to the Convention undertake to protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. For these purposes, States Parties shall in particular take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent; the inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual activity, the exploitative use of children in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices, the exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials, take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent the abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form.
f) International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 29 on Forced Labour was adopted by Turkey on 30 October 1998.
g) Turkey adopted Optional protocol of 8 September 2000 to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, with the Decision of Council of Ministers No. 2002/4241 of 28 May 2002.
h) Turkey has also signed many Security Cooperation Agreement envisaging cooperation on fight against terrorism and organised crimes. All of these agreements have provisions for establishing illegal migration and human trafficking.

In this framework;

A memorandum between Belarus and Turkey was signed on 28 July 2004, denoting understanding between their ministries of interior with respect to “Combating Human Trafficking And Illegal Migration”.
A protocol between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and the Republic of Turkey was signed on 10 March 2005 on the implementation of Article 9 to the "Agreement between the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia and the Republic of Turkey on cooperation in the fight against terrorism, organized crime and other serious crimes".
A supplementary protocol between the Ministries of Interior of Ukraine and the Republic of Turkey was signed on 7 July 2005 on the implementation of Article 1 to the "Agreement Between The Governments Ukraine And The Republic Of Turkey On Cooperation In The Fight Against Crime”.
 
A protocol between the Ministries of Interior of Moldova and the Republic of Turkey was signed on 8 February 2005 and put into implementation on “Cooperation in Fight against Human Trafficking within the Framework of Agreement on Cooperation in Fight against Drug Smuggling, International Terrorism and Other Organised Crimes”.
 
Lastly, “Bilateral Cooperation Protocol” was signed with Kyrgyzstan on 5 September 2006.
 
NATIONAL LEGISLATION;

1) Human Trafficking Crime in Criminal Code of Turkey

In August 2002,  Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) adopted two amendments defining human trafficking and smuggling as crime under Turkish Criminal Code.

human trafficking crime was defined in article 201/b inserted into Turkish Criminal Code  by “Law No. 4771” published in the Official Gazette No. 24841 of 9 August 2002 and came into force, and severe sanctions were envisaged for those committing the mentioned crime. Under Article 80 of new Turkish Criminal Code No. 5237, effective as from 1 June 2005, human trafficking crime was addressed again and the punishments for those committing the mentioned crime were increased. With the last arrangement on 19 December 2006, the expressions “forced prostitution” and “the person bringing into the country/taking out from the country” were added, and in this respect, “human trafficking crime” under Turkish Criminal Code was fully harmonised with UN Palermo Convention and the supplementary protocol on fight against human trafficking.

Criminal Code of  Turkey Article 80- (1) (Amended: 6.12.2006-5560/3rd article) Persons who provide, kidnap or shelter or transfer a person (s) from one place to another unlawfully and by force, threat or violence or misconduct of power or by executing acts of enticement or taking advantage of control power on helpless persons in order to force them to work or serve for others or to send them away where he is treated almost like a slave, are sentenced to imprisonment from eight years to twelve years and punished with punitive fine up to ten thousand days.
 
(2) In case of execution of acts which constitute offense in the definition of first subsection and having the purposes listed in the first paragraph, the consent of the victim is considered void.
 
(3) In case of kidnapping, providing, sheltering or transfer of a person(s) who is under the age of eighteen for the purposes stated in the first paragraph, the offender is subject to the punishments indicated in the first paragraph even if he did not execute the acts causing offense.
 
(4) Security precautions are applied for the legal entities committing such offenses.
 
 
2) Provisions included in Law No. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection

Articles 48, 49, 55, 108 and 123 of Law No. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection adopted on 04/04/2013 and effective once published in the Official Gazette No. 28615 dated 11/04/2013 are related to Fight against Human Trafficking and protection of the victims.

Residence permit for victim of human trafficking 

ARTICLE 48 – (1) A residence permit valid for thirty days may be granted by
governorates to foreigners, where there is strong suspicion that the foreigner is, or in the future will be, a victim of human trafficking, so that they can recover from the effects of their experiences and decide whether or not to cooperate with the competent authorities.
 
(2) Conditions attached to the issuing of residence permits shall not apply to
residence permits for victims of human trafficking.


Extension and cancellation of residence permits granted to victims of human
trafficking
 
ARTICLE 49- (1) The residence permit granted to allow for a period of recovery
and reflection may be extended for six-month periods at most for the safety, health or
special circumstance of the victim. However these periods shall not, in any case, be in
excess of three years in total.
 
(2) The residence permit may be cancelled in cases when it is determined that the
victim or the foreigner, strongly suspected of being a victim, has on his or her own
initiative re-established relations with the perpetrators of the crime.


Those against whom a removal decision shall not be issued
 
ARTICLE 55- (1) Regardless of whether they fall under the scope of Article 54
of this Law, a removal decision shall not be issued against those:
 
a) for whom there are serious indications that he or she will be subjected to the
death penalty, torture, cruel or degrading treatment or punishment in the country to which they will be deported,
 
b) who face risks in case of travel due to reasons of serious health problems, age
and pregnancy,
 
c) who cannot receive treatment in the country to which he or she will be expelled
while treatment for the life-threatening health problem is continuing,
 
ç) who are victims of human trafficking benefitting from victim support
processes,
 
d) who are victims of psychological, physical or sexual violence until their
treatment is completed.
 
(2) Evaluations concerning foreigners who fall under the first paragraph shall be
made on an individual basis. These persons may be subject to administrative obligations such as residence in a designated address and reporting to authorities in the form and intervals requested.


ç) Victims of human trafficking benefiting from victim support process

Service Units

ARTICLE 108  – (1) Service units of the Presidency and their duties are as follows:
c) Department of the Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking;
1) To execute work and procedures on fight against human trafficking and protection of the victims,
2) To execute projects on fight against human trafficking and protection of the victims,
3) To establish, operate or outsource the operation of help lines for victims of human trafficking,
4) To carry out other duties assigned by the General Director.
 
Amended provisions

ARTICLE 123 – (1) the expression “to the citizens and foreigners” included under article 34 of Passport Law No. 5682 of 15.7.1950 has been amended as “to the citizens”. 
(2) Following subparagraphs have been inserted to the first paragraph of article 88 of Duties Law No. 492 of 2.7.1964 .
“f) Those holding long-term residence permits,
 g) Victims of human trafficking crime.”
 
 
3) Other Related Legislation

a) New legal arrangement published in the Official Gazette No. 25127 of 3 June 2003 which envisages amendment to Turkish Citizenship Law No. 403 prevented facilitation of staying in the country by means of fraudulent marriage through abuse of conjugal union, which is a method used by the traffickers.
b) Law No. 4817 of 27.02.2003 concerning Working Permit of the Foreigners was published in the Official Gazette of  6 March 2003 once adopted by TGNA with a aim of preventing illegal working and illegal employment. The relevant by-law concerning the implementation of the law came into force on 6 September 2003.
c) Regarding the victims who are in need of physical and mental treatment; the following provision was finalised as annexed to the Council of Ministers’ Decision No. 2003/6565 of 05.12.2003 and immediately put into implementation; “sick persons of foreign nationality who were found to be Victims of Human Trafficking and have not adequate resources for paying their health-care expenses shall be exempted from paragraph one in article 1 of the Law No. 4736 of 08.01.2002 concerning benefiting from the services provided by official health-care providers”.
d) Certificates of authorisation of the holders thereof are cancelled in the event of a imprisonment decision finalised by the judiciaries due to human trafficking crime as per Ground Transportation By-law prepared within the framework of “Ground Transportation Law” that came into effect on 19 July 2003 after adopted by TGNA on 10.07.2005 and effective as of 25 July 2004.
e) Implementation By-law of the Law on Working Permits of the Foreigners was amended in the Official Gazette No. 28204 of 14.2.2012, and additional paragraph was inserted to article 13. With this arrangement, applications by the foreigners for working permit who were granted residence permit as victims of human trafficking  are finalised without being subject to the evaluation criteria stated in the fourth paragraph.