The interim head of the General Inspectorate for Migration and Asylum, his deputies, and several officials involved in the case of the man murdered in the Riscani district of the capital have left their positions. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), officials identified multiple violations in the asylum-granting process.
A total of six people were targeted and accused of negligence in office. They allegedly exceeded the 21-day deadline for interviewing the asylum seeker and conducted the interviews more than eight months after the applicant applied.
“Following the investigation conducted by the Internal Protection and Anti-Corruption Service at GIM, the Minister of Internal Affairs decided to remove the head of GIM, his deputies, the head of the Residence Supervision Directorate, and the head of the Asylum and Statelessness Directorate from their positions. The person directly handling the case of the Turkish citizen and two other employees under investigation have since submitted their resignation reports. The results of the internal investigation by the MIA will be forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office to complete the criminal investigation file in this case,” stated the MIA press service.
Following the internal review, officials identified additional legislative issues that regulate migration, asylum, and statelessness, as well as problems within the internal procedures of the institution responsible for migration and asylum, which relate to the reasons for delays in decisions for asylum seekers. The investigation also revealed that the General Inspectorate for Migration and Asylum did not effectively share service information.
FOR THE MOSTÂ IMPORTANT NEWS, FOLLOW US ONÂ TWITTER!
“In this case, the Residence Supervision Directorate (RSD) did not inform the Asylum and Statelessness Directorate that it had already issued a rejection notice for the Turkish citizen’s residence request. Following this rejection, the Turkish citizen applied for asylum, and the lack of communication led to starting the asylum application process from scratch, without knowing that the Turkish citizen was under international surveillance, even though RSD had this information in the residence rejection file,” stated MIA representatives.
On July 10, Turkish citizen Izzet Iren was killed at a café in the Riscani district of the capital. It later emerged that the man was a leader of a criminal group and was wanted internationally, but he had managed to obtain asylum in Moldova.
In 2015, Iren was arrested in London and sentenced to 21 years in prison for firearm offenses. He was extradited to Turkey in 2019 to serve his sentence but escaped before he could start his imprisonment.