An Afghan refugee woman who reported being sexually assaulted by four other detainees at a repatriation centre in Turkey’s eastern Iğdır (Îdir) province is still being held in the same centre with her attackers, according to a report by Mezopotamya News Agency.
Two of the four men S.F.A. accused of threatening and sexually assaulting her were called in to the local gendarmerie for testimony, after which they were returned to the centre. The remaining two were not questioned.
The gendarmerie had taken her initial statement at the repatriation centre, but no interpreter was present during S.F.A.’s testimony, despite the woman not speaking Turkish. She had been initially able to inform authorities via a Turkish-speaking friend.
After the interview, the gendarmerie concluded she was not willing to pursue a complaint. However, when the woman was able to contact lawyers, she pressed charges at the Iğdır chief public prosecutor’s office.
Iğdır shares a border with Armenia, Nakhcivan and Iran, and has been a hot spot for irregular border crossings. Conditions at the detention centre have consistently been bad, and it was evacuated in 2019, one year after its establishment, due to a tuberculosis outbreak and a riot.
