The Turkmen Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights reports that on 1 April activists from the HHD group “Hak Hukuga Daýanç” established in 2021, presented a review “Turkmenistan: 30 years of independence”.
Representatives of nine Turkish NGOs and media outlets attended the event.
Adam Chevik from “International Platform for Justice” reminded those attending that Turkmenistan is one of the most repressive and isolated countries in the world.Many residents live below the poverty line and important legal, social and other issues remain unresolved.
Hundreds of thousands of residents need to go abroad in search of jobs, including to Turkey.Any dissent is clamped down in Turkmenistan; independent political and non-governmental organizations are banned; freedom of speech is non-existent.
The human rights activists called for joint efforts in drawing the attention of the international community and mass media or to lift pressure on the civil society activists in Turkmenistan.
HHD activist Dursoltan Taganova spoke about the grave violations of human rights in Turkmenistan, including freedom of speech, religion and the absence of democratic elections. In addition, she criticized the authorities for denying the presence of COVID-19 in Turkmenistan.
Regarding Turkmen nationals in Turkey, Taganova pointed out that “Turkey has become the second home for many Turkmen citizens, but they have been experiencing problems with the renewal of their passports for some years”. This results in many Turkmen nationals holding the status of illegal migrants.
“The situation deteriorated after Turkmenistan closed its borders at the outset of the pandemic.Tens of thousands of people have been unable to return to their home country” she added.
Due to unregulated legal status we are deprived of the right to healthcare, retirement benefits and occupational safety.The sad thing is when one of our fellow countrymen dies here, we are not able to bury him in his home country despite our requests to the Turkmen authorities.
The attorney Omer Yuzgul said that the dire situation of Turkmen nationals cannot be ignored and called for a stop to the violation of their rights.
The presentation is one of the steps in the collaboration between human rights defenders and activists of Turkey and Turkmenistan. Some participants expressed the hope that the official position of Ashgabat might change following the 12 March Presidential elections, according to the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.
The report in Turkish is available here (pdf, 30МB).The post Turkmen human rights activists inform their Turkish counterparts of violations of rights of Turkmen labour migrants first appeared on Chronicles of Turkmenistan.