First, we’d like to get to know you. Can you tell us a little about the ARSA Association?
The Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Refugees (ARSA) is a Turkey-based non-governmental organization that has been operating since 2009. We work in cooperation with local authorities, public institutions, non-governmental organizations, universities, and international organizations. Our aim is to provide support and solidarity, especially to asylum seekers, refugees, and other disadvantaged groups in need.
Through our wide volunteer network and stakeholders across Turkey, we carry out active work in areas such as access to health services, the right to education, legal assistance, and basic services. Due to our rights-based approach and ongoing humanitarian efforts, we have been awarded various national and international awards over the years.
In addition to local and national work, we conduct field research in collaboration with academic institutions and researchers, producing data and analysis on the living conditions of asylum seekers, their access to basic services, and the rights violations they face. We also maintain active communication with the media to draw attention to the problems faced by refugees and asylum seekers and carry out various activities to raise awareness.
You carry out various activities with asylum seeker and refugee groups in Kayseri. Which need in particular stands out in your activities focused on children?
Through our teams and volunteers in Kayseri and many other provinces of Turkey, we conduct case follow-up and advocacy activities. The most fundamental need we observe in the field, especially concerning children, is the difficulty in accessing basic rights such as education and health. Due to some administrative decisions issued by the Provincial Directorate of Migration Management regarding families, children have faced serious obstacles in accessing education and health services when their identity cards are rendered inactive. The inactivation of IDs leads to serious consequences, such as being unable to enroll in school, lack of access to health services, and children being deprived of basic rights for long periods. Therefore, ensuring children's access to education and health rights is one of our institution's top priorities.
Children’s rights to education and health should be protected regardless of their families’ administrative status
What difficulties do asylum seeker and refugee children face regarding access to the right to education? We’d like to hear your observations from the field.
To better understand the issue, it's useful to briefly explain the process. Asylum seeker and refugee children are registered with their families in files at the Provincial Directorate of Migration Management. As a result of the international protection proceedings for individuals listed in the same family file, decisions may be issued for rejection or considered as withdrawn.
During this process, we prepare applications to children's courts requesting educational and health protective measures so that children’s access to fundamental rights can be ensured by court decisions.
After the social incidents that took place in Kayseri in July 2024, we began to see serious disruptions in the processes regarding educational protection applications. Our clients informed us that educational protection applications submitted to children’s courts during the summer months were being rejected.
Following our interviews and research, we learned of a directive containing new practices for educational protection, sent by the central administration to all 81 provinces. This directive stated that, for families subject to deportation, they must first provide a document from the Provincial Directorate of Migration Management attesting to their legal right of stay in order to apply for educational protective measures for their children. Since this situation posed a serious barrier to children’s right to education, we launched a comprehensive advocacy process. In our report, we detailed that children’s rights to education and health should be protected independently of their families’ administrative status, and that otherwise, the practices violate the Constitution and international conventions.
We shared this report, particularly with the UN, as well as many other institutions and stakeholders, and conducted intensive advocacy activities. As a result of these efforts, courts began once again accepting our educational protection requests and cited the legal arguments in our report directly in their reasoning. This process serves as a concrete result of persistent advocacy efforts to protect children’s right to education.
Rights advocacy is not just a legal struggle
Access to the right to education is usually blocked at the school registration stage. What approach do you take during this process?
Despite courts issuing educational protection orders, various obstacles can still arise in school registration processes. Especially due to inactive IDs and the absence of address registration in the system, school enrollments cannot be completed.
At this point, we first ensure that written applications are made to school administrations, then to district and provincial directorates of national education. We prepare petitions specifying that court decisions must be implemented as a constitutional requirement and follow up on the process in writing.
As a result of our intensive follow-up, we learned that the Ministry of National Education was able to enroll children with educational protection orders and notify the relevant schools. During this process, we supported our clients both legally and psychologically.
After school registration, we provide various support to help children continue their educational processes. To break down the language barrier, we organize Turkish, English, Arabic, and Farsi courses and conversation clubs. Our psychologist conducts awareness trainings against peer bullying both in our office and in schools. We hold individual counseling sessions for children and their families. As part of social cohesion activities, we organize workshops, picnics, cultural events, nature walks, and integration programs. We provide stationery and educational materials to children in need. We also regularly host psychological, social, and legal information sessions.
We plan a significant part of these activities to include both refugee families and local people in need, with the aim of strengthening social cohesion and a culture of living together.
Do you have any additional efforts to support children staying in school?
We support children's school attendance through our children’s rights committee, psychologists, child protection specialists, and social workers operating within our association.
Our children’s rights committee is made up entirely of children under 18. This committee holds regular meetings, providing children with a space to directly express the problems they experience. In this way, we can directly identify the problems, peer relationships, and needs children encounter at school, and develop solutions together.
How do you interact with teachers and school administrations?
Thanks to our strong communication with local institutions, we are viewed as an important support mechanism, especially during registration and adaptation processes. When problems arise after registration, school administrations or families contact our association directly. Each application is first evaluated by our social workers, then directed to psychosocial support, legal consultancy, activities/program unit, or child protection unit as needed. This enables us to support the social integration processes of children in cooperation with school administrations.
What route do you take in the face of rights violations?
Although we do not yet have a separate intervention protocol for the school enrollment processes we have been focusing on intensely since 2024, we actively carry out the processes within our existing institutional procedures. In cases such as school registration, language barriers, quota issues, or discrimination, we first operate written application mechanisms, hold talks with administrative authorities, and provide necessary guidance. We believe that written applications and official records are particularly important in rights advocacy processes.
What advice would you give to organizations facing similar situations?
Civil society organizations working in the field often come across highly complex and long-standing problems. For this reason, we believe the priority should be perseverance and moving forward by analyzing problems step by step.
Sometimes, problems that seem impossible to solve can be overcome through accurate analysis, written applications, advocacy activities, and patient follow-up. The process we experienced regarding educational protective measures is one of the clearest examples of this.
We also find it important that, in processes carried out with administrative authorities, written applications are made rather than verbal discussions, that official minutes are requested in the face of negative attitudes, and that the process is documented. But the most important thing is not to lose hope and to remember that rights advocacy is a long-term process. Rights advocacy is not just a legal struggle, but also a way of life and solidarity.