Turkish Political Refugee has Political Asylum Rejected by Swiss State
Featured image: Cemal Toydemir in front of and ITIF banner. Source: Avrupa Haber
A joint call has been made for a press conference in solidarity with Cemal Toydemir, a board member of the Federation of Turkish Workers in Switzerland (ITIF) and a political refugee from Turkey.
Toydemir left Turkey in 2023, and applied for asylum in Switzerland due to the repression, torture, arbitrary detention and anti-democratic practices he faced from the Turkish State. Toydemir presented ample evidence of the violations he faced in Turkey in his asylum application, but the Swiss Federal Secretariat for Migration (SEM) rejected the application on the grounds that he did not have a “sufficient political profile”.
In the joint call, it reads: “To consider the political profile of someone who served seven years in prison for political activities as insufficient is, simply put, arbitrary; it demonstrates a lack of understanding and concern for the difficulties and pressures people face. This arbitrariness is unacceptable.”
The press conference will be held at 21st of April at 13:00, on the sidewalk in front Federal Asylum Center, Duttweilerstrasse 11, 8005 Zurich.
The following organizations were signatories of the joint call; Swiss Federation of Turkish Workers – (ITIF), Swiss Federation for Democratic Rights – FDR, Swiss Federation of Migrant Workers – (IGIF), Swiss Workers’ Union Peoples’ Brotherhood Platform – (BIR-KAR), Swiss Human Rights Solidarity Association – (IHDD).
You can read the full call here:
