A delegation from the ATAA Humanitarian Relief Association visited the Turkish Ministry of Labor in the capital Ankara last Wednesday. It was accompanied by a number of representatives from the civil society organizations concerned with the Syrian interior, and in coordination with the Office of Diplomatic Relations of the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH)
During the visit, the delegation met with “Mr. Saad Eddin Akil” the Director General of the Directorate of International Employment in Turkey, which deals with the affairs of foreigners’ work in Turkey
ATAA Association was represented by “Mr. Mohammad Akte”, Secretary General of the Board of Directors, “and Harun Inal”, Coordinator of the Legal Affairs Department for the Association
During the meeting, the delegation discussed the work of the civil work organizations, how to develop it, and some difficulties faced by employees of the civil society organizations. One of these difficulties is applying to get a work permit in Turkey, and they discussed the mechanisms of finding solutions to this matter
After that, the delegation headed to the General Directorate of Migration and there they met the deputy director-general “Mr. Saleh Bouchak”. They discussed several problems faced by the Syrian community in Turkey, such as the difficulty of obtaining temporary protection Identity cards in some cities, and also the difficulties Syrians face while doing transactions such as changing their residence address (Moving from one city to another in Turkey), and also the issue of changing the temporary protection card (kimlek) to a tourist residence.
They also discussed the obstacles that employees of the civil society organizations are facing while moving TO and FROM Syria
The delegation also headed to the Turkish Parliament where they met “Mr. Jalaluddin Gofnash”, the Chairman of the Internal Affairs Committee of the Parliament, and the Deputy Speaker of the People’s Assembly of Kahramanmarash, where the work of ATAA Association was defined and an agreement was made to hold a workshop and include Syrian organizations active on the ground. After that they held another workshop with a number of members of the parliament in order to find solutions to the problems facing civil society organizations in general
At the end of these meetings, Turkish officials promised to research the issues at hand and find appropriate solutions to them as soon as possible
