Main menu  >>

II. STATUS OF OBSERVANCE OF UKRAINIAN MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS IN THE RECEIVING COUNTRIES

3. TURKEY

According to the information provided by the Embassy of Turkey in Ukraine in response to the request of the Commissioner for Human Rights, Turkey at August 1, 2002 had 2,300 Ukrainian citizens, 876 of them staying there for the purpose of employment, 412 for acquiring an education, and 1,012 for other reasons.

Depending on their legal status, Ukrainian citizens in the labor market of Turkey can be divided into three categories:

§ those who have the right to permanent residence in Turkey;

§ those who are employed on legal grounds under employment visas issued by diplomatic missions of Turkey in Ukraine;

§ those who work in Turkey illegally.

The Embassy of Turkey in Ukraine informed the Commissioner that, as a rule, permits for employment are issued to:

§ aliens who want to work in private companies receive permits for employment at the Sub-secretariat on Treasury Matters in compliance with the Law On Encouraging Foreign Capital;

§ aliens who want to work in tourist companies receive permits for employment at the Ministry of Tourism in compliance with the Law On Encouraging Foreign Capital;

§ aliens who want to work in private companies as architects or engineers receive permits for employment at the Ministry of Public Welfare in compliance with the Law On Associations of Turkish Chambers of Engineers and Architects;

§ aliens who want to work as football players in sports clubs receive permits for employment at the Football Federation, while aliens who want to be engaged in other types of sport receive their permits at the Main Authority for Youth and Sport Affairs.

The Consulate-General of Ukraine in Istanbul informed that social security and conditions of work of Ukrainian citizens of the first category practically do not differ from what Turkish citizens enjoy and are absolutely satisfactory.

Social security and conditions of work of migrant workers of the second category depend on the terms and conditions of a contract and the nature of the jobs. Within this context the most problematic category are Ukrainian women who work as dancers in nightclubs or disco bars where they render sex services either by consent or by force or else are placed next to clients to induce their excessive spending (covert extortion). Besides, the owners of such entertainment establishments take away from the women their passports lest they seek employment in other clubs or change the nature of their jobs.

An employment visa and air ticket cost an average of US $500, an expense usually covered by employers or mediators. Apart from that, employers pay for medical checkups and residence permits. If an employer conscientiously abides by his commitments, a migrant worker can repay this debt in a month or a month and a half.

At the present time, as the Ukrainian Embassy in Turkey informed, the number of women who want to work in such establishments exceeds the availability of vacancies. Employers practically have unlimited opportunities to dismiss anyone who defies their mostly unlawful requirements. Selection of the humblest begins right at the outset of recruitment: if a woman insists on having all her rights and obligations specified in a contract, she immediately loses the chance of getting a job. The most frequently committed violations with regard to this category of migrants is the unwillingness of Turkish employers to conclude contracts and, even if they are concluded, to subsequently comply with their contractual obligations.

The absence of contracts gives the employers a free hand to misuse his power in restricting or violating the workers’ rights. Among the most typical violations is exploitation after working hours, coercion to prostitution and covert extortion of clients, and application of unspecified penalties for, say, failure to arrive at work on time, absenteeism, failure to perform or to perform properly an assignment. Now and then passports are taken away to deny women the opportunity to change jobs or terminate employment before the earlier established six months.

Frequently financial conflicts arise between the employers and workers. In such cases employers tend to compromise for fear of investigation by the police or auditors. After all, the employers who invited aliens to the job are liable for their actions on the territory of Turkey. If it is proven that an employed alien is involved in something unlawful, the employer runs the risk of having his establishment closed. In Ankara, for example, precisely this was the reason why the number of nightclubs diminished by a half during the past two years. To minimize risks, employers prohibit the women from leaving the premises of hotels or nightclubs in the evening or at night.

Yet a vast majority of Ukrainian citizens work in Turkey illegally. At the Turkish border they buy a monthly tourist visa for US $10 without the right to work.

In view of the legal consequences, Ukrainian illegal migrants can be divided into three subgroups:

§ those who upon termination of a visa leave Turkey for a short time and then return again, thereby avoiding violating visa regulations and paying fines upon departure;

§ those who, apart from illegal employment, remain in Turkey illegally because the validity of their visas expired;

§ those who legalize their status by soliciting the service of mediators to fraudulently vise foreign passports with tourist visas at a price of US $100 to US $150.

Under Turkish legislation the two latter categories grossly violate the laws of the country and are subject to deportation or, in specific cases, to short-term detention for forging visas.

The absolute majority of illegally employed Ukrainian women engage in prostitution.

Istanbul is Turkey’s largest labor market for both legal and illegal job seekers. Among the other centers that absorb illegal migrant workers are the provinces of Antalya and Izmir.

Ukrainian women bent on engaging in prostitution arrive in large numbers (mostly from the Donbas) in the cities of Hopa, Rize and Trabzon on the southeastern coast of the Black Sea. Hopa is the largest center of prostitution with about 1,000 women from the CIS countries, some 300 to 500 of them from Ukraine. Here prostitution is plied in hotels.

Unlike the eastern Black Sea provinces, the western Mediterranean region has a ramified system of procurement of women. Such a system is not typical of the eastern Black Sea provinces, because here sexual services are cheap (from US $10 to US $30, while in Antalya a minimum US $40-50), the prostitutes and the hotel owners being the only ones who stand to gain.

Upon expiry of the legal term of stay (the tourist visa for one month is not extended), Ukrainian citizens solve the problem of their continued stay by:

§ paying at departure from Turkey a fine for exceeding the visa time limit;

§ filing with a Ukrainian consular post an application for the issue of a return document (for US $60) in lieu of a lost passport, which costs less than paying the fine for exceeding the visa time limit;

§ departing for a neighboring country for one-two days, if the place of residence is close to the border, and then returning to Turkey with a new tourist visa;

§ forging a stamp in the passport for entry into Turkey. The police frequently detect the forgery, place the migrant under pretrial detention for a number of weeks, then he/she is brought to justice and deported.

The women who come to Turkey to engage in prostitution cannot count on any social protection. They apply to Ukrainian consular offices only when their life is seriously endangered or when they lose their passports. This category of migrants is involved in the largest number of lamentable cases.

Foreign prostitutes are practically non-existent in the inland provinces farther away from the sea, where the local population adheres more strictly to traditions.

Referred to the category of illegal workers are also “barkers” at shopping centers as well as guides and interpreters who work in large resort centers. Their desire to work is easily satisfied by Turkish laws, but their job permits for three-four months hold little economic attraction for the employers. Therefore, the “barkers,” guides and interpreters deal with their visa problems in the same manner as the other migrant workers. On the whole, this group of “illegals” practically does not stir up any serious problems.

Relevantly, Ukrainian citizens practically do not apply for work in agriculture and none of them is willing to take up menial jobs in garbage disposition or loading, although in Turkey the percentage of aliens performing these jobs is rather high.

<<  Back

Home ^^