The Turkish police in the state of Adana has launched a security campaign which it carried out in cooperation with the Foreigners’ Bureau with the aim of searching for Syrians’ Turkish identity documents, in particular the Turkish temporary protection ID, the “kimlik.”
Turkish police stopped Syrians in the streets and at stores to take pictures of each person and their temporary protection ID. After taking the photos, the police proceeded to record this in the registries they carried out throughout the campaign.
The campaign included, according to the Haberturk website, about 80,000 Syrians in the province and the suburbs of the city of Adana. The police checked that each person carried a correct ID, and that it matched with the person.
In addition to the people who hold the Turkish temporary protection cards (kimlik), the Turkish police also took pictures of people who do not have ID cards or any other document and recorded them.
The website said that more than 80,000 were subject to the personal ID inspection, and that the police found 10,000 Syrians without temporary protection cards, in addition to about 20,000 Syrians who had cards from other provinces. Turkish temporary protection law requires that the person who lives under temporary protection lives in the state where the ID was issued and it is hard in many cases to change it for another state.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
