Turkey: Need for continued improvement in response to protracted displacement
26 Oct 2009 09:30:00 GMT Source: IDMC
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Returnees in Tatvan, Bitlis
Province.
IDMC, June 2009
Around one million internally displaced
people (IDPs) in Turkey continue to face protracted displacement, with many obstacles still standing in the way of durable solutions. Prevailing insecurity in south-eastern Turkey, the continuing
presence of village guard militias and of mines, and under-development continue to bar their return. Integration in urban areas is still fraught with difficulties in the absence of targeted
assistance, as IDPs, most of them Kurdish, face socio-economic marginalisation and discrimination.
However the government has taken notable steps to address the internal displacement
situation. In the last four years, it has commissioned a national survey on the number and conditions of IDPs; drafted a national IDP strategy; adopted a law on compensation; and put together a
comprehensive pilot action plan in Van Province which addresses rural and urban situations of displacement.
The Van pilot is now to be replicated in 13 other provinces affected by
displacement, and form the basis of national action plan that would provide a comprehensive response to displacement in south-eastern provinces. However gaps persist in the response, both for IDPs in
the south-east and for those displaced in other parts of Turkey.
The issue of the place of Kurdish people in Turkey dominates the situation of displacement, and in recent years the
government has taken limited but unprecedented steps to address the Kurdish question. These steps are still fraught with challenges, but this approach, if continued, has the potential to reconciliate
Turkish society and favourably affect the national response to displacement.
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