Aydın Removal Centre run by DGMM, in southwestern Aydın province has become well known for ill-treatment and violence against refugees.
An Afghan refugee who has been detained in the centre told MA that DGMM officials have been trying to coerce him “to go back to his country and fight”.
“My father was killed by the Taliban and I was given arms by force two years ago. In order the escape the war, I migrated to Turkey. I didn’t want to fight,” the refugee said. “I walked hundreds of miles for days. I still have problems on my legs and feet.”
He said: “When I entered Turkey, the officers here sent me to Denizli, they told me that I would be registered to the migration office and be given permission to work. I went to Denizli Migration Office two months ago, but the officers there brought me to DGGM. I don’t know why I was brought here or still being kept here.”
He also shared that he is in urgent need of immediate legal support. “We have been appointed no lawyers since we were brought to this detention facility. There are other refugees here, who have been detained way before me and they told me that none of their petitions have been even considered by the authorities yet,” he said.
He said that the DGMM officers have been intimidating him and other refugees to sign forms and papers by force. He said: “They want us to say, ‘I want to go back to my country’ in order to deport us. They threatened me that if I don’t sign, they will keep me here for a whole year and then they would deport me in the end anyway.”