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Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Dates

2019 - Present

Type of practice

Measuring/Data collection

Geographic scope

Summary

The Irregular Migration Joint Database, which started to be used in 2019, is a system that was established to collect the identity information and fingerprints of irregular immigrants on a common platform and works in an integrated manner between the Presidency of Migration Management, Turkish National Police and the General Command of the Gendarmerie. The personal data of the irregular migrants identified by the law enforcement are recorded in the system during their processing, and then the irregular migrants submitted to the Provincial Immigration Administration are processed over their data in the system.

The operation of the said system is carried out in accordance with the Law on the Protection of Personal Data No. 6698 in the Turkish legislation. In addition, in Article 99 of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection, it says that the collection, protection, storage and use of personal data belonging to foreigners, applicants and international protection status holders by our institution or governorships in accordance with the relevant legislation and international agreements to which it is a party is provided. In addition to all these, access to the system is only possible by certain personnel with a user name and password.

The dissemination and development of the Irregular Migration Joint Database and similar systems are important in terms of ensuring the effective use of digital systems in migration management, especially in the fight against irregular migration, and developing data-based policies.

Organizations

Main Implementing Organization(s)

Government of Türkiye

Detailed Information

Presidency of Migration Management, Ministry of Interior

Benefit and Impact

The Coast Guard Command benefits from the system by:

• Compiling data of high quality, up-to-date, accurate and in accordance with international standards needed in the field of combating irregular migration.

• Since the system is a fingerprint-integrated system, it is easier to detect foreigners who are caught repeatedly.

• Preventing information pollution and accessing the same data by all stakeholder institutions.

• It is possible to carry out business and transactions quickly and effectively.

The system also helps to prevent human trafficking, to increase border management capacity and border security. The required time for transactions (although it varies according to the number of foreigners detected and processed) may take 7-8 minutes at most for a foreigner's data to be entered into the system by law enforcement.

For measuring the impacts of the system, keeping the data of all irregular migrants in this database provides a statistically sound analysis. However, the fact that many external institutions want to be included in the system can be interpreted as the system being considered successful.

Key Lessons

It is considered that it is important for the functioning of the system to determine the duties, authorities and responsibilities of all parties that will be included in the system in detail at the first stage, and to have a good workflow before the installation.

Due to the fact that different institutions may have different systems / different infrastructures, it takes time for the software / technical integration of these systems.

Recommendations(if the practice is to be replicated)

Innovation

The system of the Irregular Migration Joint Database is applicable at national level, in coordination with relevant stakeholders. It has an innovative approach that, since the system works as an integrated fingerprint system, it becomes easier to detect the multiple records of migrations. The system can also be used by relevant departments which are responsible for migration, human trafficking and public security, so it is an integrated system. All of the procedures carried on through the system and all the data are recorded into the system, so it becomes easier to detect irregular migrants at the border and also within the country, even if they try to enter into country more than once. This is, in fact, one of the most important benefits of the system, that it detects irregular migrants trying to enter into country several times. Moreover, all stakeholders can reach the same data, so that the procedures can be carried on faster, making the impacts of the system sustainable.

Date submitted:

27 January 2022

Disclaimer: The content of this practice reflects the views of the implementers and does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations, the United Nations Network on Migration, and its members.