Documentation and Recordkeeping Issues Affecting Refugees in Turkey: A Review

Abstract This report examines the recordkeeping issues facing refugees, displaced persons, and asylum seekers who have either applied for asylum while residing in Turkey or transiting through. There is a high degree of interdependency between types of documents, particularly birth certificates, marriage certificates, and identity documents. The challenges faced by Syrian and non-Syrian refugees can be distinctive, suggesting a need for more targeted interventions. The report’s recommendations confirm Sakena Alalawi and Anne Gilliland’s findings and point to a pressing need for archive-to-archive collaboration to increase accessibility of records; to lobby those who make policy, adjudicate asylum cases and vet refugees for resettlement to consider alternate forms of documentation that might be presented by a records advocate working on a case; and to develop new forms of certification for relevant digitized documents.