A two-day training session on “Individual Application in the Context of Immigration Detention” was held on 24-25 March 2025 in Ankara in the premises of the Association for Social Development and Aid Mobilisation, in co-operation with the Horizontal Facility Action on Strengthening the Protection of Human Rights in the Context of Migration in Türkiye. The training, launched with the opening remarks of the Head of Council of Europe Programme Office in Ankara, aimed to strengthen the expertise of lawyers working in the field of human rights and the rule of law by offering insights into relevant case law from the Turkish Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
Bringing together legal professionals, the event focused on key legal principles and procedural aspects of individual applications in the context of immigration detention. Among the main topics discussed were admissibility criteria before the Turkish Constitutional Court, deadlines for submitting applications and grounds for applications, ordinary and extraordinary legal remedies, formal and substantive exhaustion of domestic remedies and interim measures.
Specific attention was given to the concept of lawfulness of immigration detention, the right to challenge detention decisions, deportation orders, non-refoulement principles and conditions of detention in the places where the migrants are deprived of their liberty. The participants also explored the state’s negative and positive obligations in the context of the prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment standards for effective investigation into the complaints and alternatives to immigration detention with a specific focus on measures for vulnerable groups.
By fostering dialogue and knowledge-sharing among legal professionals, this event contributed to improving the quality of legal aid to migrants, strengthening judicial review mechanisms and enhancing understanding of the scope of the protection of the fundamental rights in the immigration detention process within the framework of individual application mechanism before the Turkish Constitutional Court.
The Joint Project on “Supporting the Effective Implementation of Turkish Constitutional Court Judgments in the Field of Fundamental Rights” is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe. The Turkish Constitutional Court is the end beneficiary of the Project.
