PACT: Supporting Institutional Capacity and Policy Development Processes in the Area of Asylum

The number of refugee stock has witnessed a drastic increase in the last 10 years globally. Turkey's is the largest refugee-hosting country in the world since 2015 makes it one of the key countries for answering this global phenomenon. The dramatic increase in the asylum seeker and refugee population in the country put asylum and migration issues among the top agenda items and created various challenges in terms of capacity and procedures for the reception, processing, status determination, provision of services, access to rights, protection and integration of this population, as well as in relation to security, economy, social cohesion, combating irregular migration and other relevant areas. ICMPD’s PACT Project aims to answer these challenges in Turkey through supporting evidence-based policymaking as well as the institutional capacity of the Directorate General of Migration Management. This aim eventually contributes to the finding, development and implementation of a durable solution for the global refugee crisis.

The project is funded by the United Kingdom, project beneficiary is the Turkish Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM) and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) is responsible for its management and implementation.

The overall objective of the proposed project is to support the Turkish asylum system in handling the current asylum caseload and addressing future needs in terms of processing asylum applications and implementing effective policies in the area of international protection and temporary protection through capacity-building activities and provision of evidence-based policy recommendations.

The project's activities and outputs are under 2 main components. The first component focuses on research, analysis and scenario and policy recommendation development. In this component, comprehensive reports on the Turkish asylum system and temporary protection regime will be drafted. The reports will provide baseline information on the current situation (highlighting the good practices and ongoing problems), analysis of possible scenarios in the near future as well as relevant policy recommendations. The second component is focused on delivering capacity-building activities with regard to the functioning of the country of origin information (COI) system and the functioning of the International Protection Bureaus (IPBs). Activities under this component include:

-Drafting and pilot implementation of guidance on the operation of the COI Unit of Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM);
-Drafting thematic COI notes on main countries of origin;
-Expert roundtable meetings and training modules on specific asylum case types.