Cover Image: Yalda Hussaini, Looking For Freedom
Legal Status of Exiled Afghan Journalists and Artists in Turkey
Report Summary by Lawyer Adnan Onur Acar (Kite-Runner)
January 2025
I. Introduction
Afghanistan ranks 178th out of 180 countries in the 2024 RSF World Press Freedom Index. With media and artistic expression systematically repressed under Taliban rule, Afghan journalists and creatives are forced into exile. Turkey has become a key destination, yet these individuals face severe legal and bureaucratic barriers. The European Union is currently negotiating migration policies with the Turkish government. Afghan journalists and their legal status should be included in these discussions to ensure protection under international law.
This report, compiled by Kite Runner, highlights the challenges Afghan journalists and creatives face in Turkey and proposes urgent solutions, including advocacy through diplomatic channels such as the German and other European Embassies and the EU-Representative in Ankara.
II. Legal Barriers and Challenges
1. Fragile Residency and Protection Status
a. Residency permits are pending or arbitrarily rejected.
b. Applications for international protection are significantly limited.
c. Journalists face administrative detention, fear of deportation, and a lack of legal stability.
d. Many Afghan journalists and artists live in major Turkish cities like Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and Bursa, which have stopped accepting new asylum applications.
e. Deportation proceedings are frequently initiated against those without legal status, despite existing international protections.
2. Arbitrary Legal Decisions and Implementation Gaps
a. The Foreigners and International Protection Law No. 6458 aligns with international law but is inconsistently applied.
b. The Directorate General of Migration Management exercises broad discretionary powers over deportations.
c. Deportation is often ruled unlawfully by courts. No Journalist got deported but the threat of deportation is pending.
d. Administrative detention can last up to 12 months, with limited chances of appeal.
3. Lack of Fundamental Rights and Access to Services
a. Afghan exiles lack diplomatic representation and consular support.
b. Those without legal status cannot access healthcare or legal remedies.
c. Afghan journalists working informally face exploitation, workplace accidents, and lack of medical care.
d. Unlike Syrian refugees, Afghans are not granted temporary protection status in Turkey.
e. Afghan consulates often refuse to provide passport renewals, worsening the legal limbo.
III. Case Studies
1. G.G.A., Journalist, Uzbek Pedia TV
a. Arrested in Istanbul on September 17, 2024, while awaiting an international protection renewal decision.
b. Wrongly accused of human trafficking due to association with a money transfer business.
c. -Released in December 2024, but remains in hiding due to uncertain legal status.
2. M.S., Journalist, Uzbek Pedia TV
a. Fled Afghanistan after his brother was killed due to mistaken identity.
b. Repeatedly denied residency and international protection applications.
c. Injured in a workplace accident; denied adequate medical care due to illegal status.
3. J.J., Amu TV, International Media
a. The residency permit expired in December 2024.
b. Leads the “Afghanistan Journalists Joint Committee in Exile” but cannot participate in public events due to the risk of detention.
c. Reports indicate increased police raids targeting undocumented foreigners.
IV. Precedent Case: Mohamed Bashir Atayee
• Arrested in Istanbul on July 23, 2022, for an expired visa.
• Court ruled deportation unlawful based on Turkish law and international human rights conventions.
• Despite a favourable court ruling, arbitrary policies continue to affect Afghan journalists.
• Bashir Atayee left Turkey due to the pending dangers he faced. His Asylums’ application in Germany got approved in February 2025.
V. Proposed Solution and Diplomatic Intervention
1. Diplomatic Engagement through the German Embassy
We urge diplomats from the European Union, particularly the German Embassy, to engage Turkish authorities in ensuring:
• Recognition of Afghan journalists and creatives as exiles at risk under international law.
• Legal stability through renewed residency permits and work authorizations.
• Exemptions from deportation procedures for media workers at risk.
• Medical access and legal representation for Afghan exiles.
2. Policy and Legislative Advocacy
• Influencing Turkey to consistently apply existing protections under Law No. 6458.
• Expanding the scope of temporary protection for Afghan exiles, similar to Syrian refugees.
• Increasing international support for legal aid programs assisting Afghan journalists.
VI. Conclusion
Afghan journalists and artists in Turkey are essential contributors to media freedom and cultural preservation. Their work challenges Taliban narratives and fosters progressive discourse. Despite clear legal protections under Turkish and international law, they remain in a precarious situation due to inconsistent policy enforcement.
Kite-Runner calls on the German Embassy and EU diplomats to take an active role in advocating for Afghan exiles’ legal recognition and protection. This intervention is crucial in preventing further human rights violations and ensuring that these individuals can continue their work safely.
VII. About the Kite Runner Platform
Kite-Runner is an Istanbul-based initiative supporting Afghan journalists and creatives in exile. The platform is a collaboration between Diyalog Derneği and International Media Support (IMS), a Copenhagen-based NGO operating in 41 countries. It provides advocacy, legal aid, and publishing opportunities for Afghan exiles.
Report (Detailed) by Adnan Onur Acar and Sabine Küper-Büsch
I. Introduction
Afghanistan ranks 178th out of 180 countries in the 2024 RSF World Press Freedom Index. With media and artistic expression systematically repressed under Taliban rule, Afghan journalists and creatives are forced into exile. Turkey has become a key destination, yet these individuals face severe legal and bureaucratic barriers.
The European Union is currently negotiating migration policies with the Turkish government. Afghan journalists and their legal status should be included in these discussions to ensure protection under international law.
This report, compiled by Kite Runner, highlights the challenges Afghan journalists and creatives face in Turkey and proposes urgent solutions, including advocacy through diplomatic channels such as the German Embassy.
• RSF and JX-Fund in Berlin underline the importance of exile media as a source of information for and about Afghans and Afghanistan. Kite Runner additionally wants to emphasize the importance of creative productions for the preservation of a liberal spirit, especially among young Afghans.
• Kite Runner got consulted by the UN Rapporteur on Afghanistan at the end of 2024 regarding the restrictions Afghan creatives are facing. Music, photography and film productions are prohibited. A woman artist connected to the program was attacked in her studio and in the venue of an NGO in Kabul during a drawing lesion, she gave. Shew was injured and threatened.
• In Turkey Afghan Journalists and Creatives are an overseen thus important source for resilience. They currently face harsh restrictions regarding their residential and international protection status.
II. Legal Barriers and Challenges
Residency permits are pending, applications for international protection are limited arbitrarily, Journalists face administrative detention, fear deportation and start hiding
Afghan Journalists are a particularly vulnerable group due to the danger they face back in Afghanistan. We observed that Türkiye has legislative possibilities for protection but is often not implementing them.
Many Afghan journalists and creatives settled in major cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and Bursa, which are now closed to new asylum applications. Those already holding residence permits or international protection IDs can apply for renewals, but the renewal is not guaranteed, and rejection rates have been increasing.
Many migrant journalists, lacking the right to stay legally, gain a temporary legal status while their deportation cancellation cases are pending due to being placed under administrative detention. Even though courts in some cases issue cancellation decisions based on the Constitution and International Conventions, most decisions justify the administrative action. Although the Foreigners and International Protection Law No. 6458 is compliant with international legislation, the Directorate General of Migration Management is vested with extensive powers.
The Migration Management staff often decides who is legal or illegal, which directly impacting migrants’ lives, including migrant journalists. Deportation decisions are made for everyone without a legal stay right, regardless of their profession, but deportation cannot be carried out if a lawsuit is filed within the legal application period. Since the start of the Kite Runner project, many journalists have faced deportation decisions, but none have been deported to Afghanistan. However, the authorities are reluctant to grant them full legal stay rights.
In Istanbul and other major cities, many journalists live illegally within designated boundaries without any residential rights. If captured, they face administrative detention. Although the current law grants the Migration Management six months for administrative detention, this period can be extended by another six months. There is a chance to appeal administrative detention to the Criminal Judgeships of Peace, but the success rate of these appeals is quite low.
Consequences
Afghan Journalists are deprived of fundamental rights and have no access to Diplomatic Services.
This illegal living situation causes serious problems regarding access to health and justice. Migrants without a residential status cannot apply to hospitals in case of health problems, nor can they approach judicial authorities if they are victims of a crime or injustice.
Among our colleagues, these are basic problems causing mistreatment and fraud in hospitals and leading to unjustified detentions. One Journalist connected to Kite Runner had to tour hospitals after injuring his eye due to his work on a construction site. The wife of another colleague had to leave the hospital with her newborn Baby suffering respiratory problems because they staff denied access to emergency service.
The temporary protection status given to Syrian migrants who arrived in the previous migration wave is not applied to Afghan refugees. This is because Turkey does not recognize the situation in Afghanistan as a clear state of war or crisis.
Although Turkey and the Taliban have not fully confronted each other, the recent mutual removal of visa exemptions for diplomatic passports indicates a shift in Turkey’s stance. Unfortunately, this does not lead to an improvement in the rights of Afghan citizens in Turkey. On the contrary, it provides another pretext for Afghan consulates to make things difficult, especially regarding passport renewals. In January, the Embassy in Ankara was asked to hand over the Key due to staff from the former government still operating there. The Consulate in Istanbul is still operating, but doesn’t supply support to citizens in exile.
III. Case Studies
Case Studies of Kite-Runner Affiliates
1) G. G. A, Journalist, Uzbek Pedia TV
G.G. A. was arrested on September 17, 2024, in Istanbul while he was on his way to an interview with the Kite Runner team. His international protection status had just expired, and he was waiting for an answer for his renewal application. Despite insufficient investigation, a court order was issued to arrest him. The accusation: human trafficking because he worked in a store that served as a centre for hawala business. This is a usual way to send money to Afghanistan. Our legal appeals against this decision were rejected by the court and G.G. A. was detained for about three months. Nevertheless, as anticipated, the court granted his release during the initial hearing of his case on December 10, 2024. The ongoing investigation against him led to G.G. A. being handed over to the migration authorities and taken to a deportation centre after his release from detention. Upon presenting the court order to the migration authorities, he was released from the centre the same night. The court issued a travel ban against G.G. A., which prevented the migration authorities from initiating deportation proceedings. He was acquitted of all baseless charges on February 5th, so his residence status remains unclear, and he can be arrested at any time as an illegal migrant. He is currently hiding in the rooms of an association and does not dare to leave the house
2) M.S., Journalist Uzbek Pedia TV
M. S.’s brother was killed in his village in Afghanistan because the Taliban confused him with the Journalist. He flew over Pakistan and Iran and subsequently entered Türkiye illegally. He tried to apply for a residency and international protection a couple of times, but the authorities refused to accept his application. For two years, the Journalist lived and worked on a construction site in Istanbul, he had a work accident and injured his right eye last year. He had difficulties receiving treatment due to his illegal status and couldn’t move freely due to fear of detention.
3) J. J., Amu TV, international media
J. J.’s residency permit wasn’t renewed in December 2024. He is responsible for a family with two kids and his parents. He is very active in the “Afghanistan Journalists Joint Committee in Exile” and in the Kite Runner-Program as a lecturer and translator. Currently, he can only join Online due to the risk of travelling in the city.
J. J.’s statement in the name of the “Afghanistan Journalists Joint Committee in Exile”
“At present, five journalists applied due to a lack of security caused by the absence of a valid residency permit. Most are hiding at home. Sometimes they are forced to go out and face the danger of being detained or deported. The Turkish authorities have mobile teams in the police forces that use vans to detain foreigners, who are undocumented. Vans are placed at strategic points like traffic crossroads, while mobile teams have also started raiding working places.”
Five other Journalists of the Committee have invalid residency permits, more family members got rejections, numerous fear the expiring date of their legal status. They fear deportation and are sentenced to a very limited mobility, which reduces their working possibilities as well.
IV. Precedent-Case Mohamed Bashir Atayee
Journalist Mohamed Bashir Atayee was captured by the police on 23rd of July 2022 during a routine ID control in Istanbul. Due to an expired Tourist-Visa, he was to be transferred to a detention centre in Tuzla and later to Iğdır- Detention Centre (which is 1,500 kilometres away from Istanbul.)
After getting information from Tuzla about his file, Lawyer Adnan Onur Acar learned that there was a deportation decision about him issued by the Istanbul Immigration Office. Acar objected this decision via the Istanbul Administrational Court and the case is still open with no decision yet about the deportation topic but at the same time after applying to Turkish connotational court (02/09/2022) to ask for ending his custody, Bashir Atayee was released by Iğdır Immigration Office after 4 days of the application (06/09/2022).
9 months after the application, Istanbul 15th Administrative Court decided that the deportation decision against Bashir was unlawful. According to this decision, the court found that the deportation decision given by Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Migration Management, which claimed that Bashir entered Turkey illegally, did not reflect the truth when examined based on the documents. The court determined that Bashir entered Turkey legally, but his residence permit had expired. Although, according to the laws of the Republic of Turkey, a non-citizen individual without the necessary documents to stay in Turkey should be deported, the court stated that the decision of the Ministry of Interior Affairs regarding Bashir was unlawful, invoking the prohibition of deportation according to Law No. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection.
According to this law, although the Republic of Turkey has the right to deport foreigners within the boundaries of the Republic of Turkey based on its sovereignty, if the person to be deported is likely to face the death penalty, torture, inhumane or degrading treatment in the country of deportation, they cannot be deported.
Bashir Atayee moved on to Germany a month after his release due to his fragile residential status. His asylum application was approved in February 2025.
V. Conclusion
The legislation for the protection of endangered journalists is currently existing and must be implemented into legal practice.
Even though the court made this decision based on the Turkish Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, the Ministry of Interior Affairs still applies arbitrary policies regarding Afghan immigrants in Turkey.
Most of the Journalists and Creatives associated with Kite Runner are primarily motivated to remain in Turkey once their legal status and work permits are granted.
Since all of them lost their Job due to the collapse of the media sector in Afghanistan, they can not get assignments from there. It is essential that they be recognized as exiled Journalists.
Their work for exiled and international media, and their production of progressive images, films, art works, and music for women’s rights, secularism, and an image of Afghanistan beyond the Taliban, are a powerful potential for progress for Afghanistan.
The latest Report of the Special Rapporteur about human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennet, published on the 25th of February 2025, is partly based on the information Afghan Creatives related to Kite Runner shared and points out:
“Continued cultural suppression is likely to have profound and long-lasting effects on
Afghan society, resulting in a loss of diversity, creativity, and cultural vibrancy. Over time,
it risks creating a society that is culturally impoverished and disconnected from its historical
roots, and which lacks creative outlets, leading to intellectual stagnation.” (P. 17)
We ask diplomats from the European Union and other Western countries to support journalists and creatives from Afghanistan in Turkey in their talks with Turkish authorities.
We would like to discuss these issues with you or your staff.
The Kite-Runner Platform
The Kite Runner Platform is based in Istanbul and supports Afghan journalists and creatives in Afghanistan and in exile. The initiative is a cooperation of the association Diyalog Derneği with International Media Support (IMS), a Copenhagen-based NGO supporting journalists and media workers in 41 countries.
Kite Runner provides an environment for journalists, artists, filmmakers, photographers, and writers to publish their work in international media, Afghan exile media, online, on social media, and at Kite Runner events.
Over the past two and a half years, the program has made a name for itself by working with local and international networks. It contributes to the reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan regarding the challenges and human rights violations Afghan journalists and creatives are facing in and outside Afghanistan.
Advocacy and legal support are an essential part of our work. We closely monitor about the situation of Afghan Journalist in Turkey and are connected to the “Afghanistan Journalists Joint Committee in Exile”, and exiled media outlets. (Amu TV, Uzbek Pedia TV, Zan Times, Afghanistan International).
Find out about our work on other online representations
Website of the Mahalla Festival. Since 2017, international academics, artists, and creatives have been invited to a cultural event with different formats (concerts, exhibitions, screenings, performances, talks) to collaborate and meet with exiled colleagues.
https://mahalla.inenart.eu/
Our Social Platforms
https://www.facebook.com/KiteRunner2022
https://www.instagram.com/kite_runner2023/
https://www.facebook.com/mahallafestival/
https://www.instagram.com/mahallafestival/
Contact
Sabine Küper-Büsch
Journalist and Documentary Filmmaker
Co-Coordinator, Kite Runner
Email: sabine@inenart.eu
