UNI calls for “decree of deportation” to be dropped against Chris Stephenson
In a strongly worded letter from UNI Global Union’s General Secretary, Philip Jennings to Turkey’s Minister of Labour, Suleyman Soylu, UNI expressed its dismay at the arrest, detention and subsequent “decree of deportation” served on Chris Stephenson, effectively forcing him out of the country.
In January 2016, an appeal from “Academics for Peace” was issued with the signatures of over 1,400 people calling for a peaceful settlement of the Kurdish question and an end to Turkey’s “deliberate massacre and deportation of Kurdish people”. As a consequence, dozens of the Turkish signatory academics were accused of “terror propaganda” and arrested.
Chris Stephenson, who is an active member of Sosyal-Is Union, representing staff of Istanbul Bilgi University, was held in the Kumkapi Removal Centre of Istanbul after being arrested on 15 February 2016 when attending the trial of fellow-signatories to letter. He faced charges of terrorism. The police claimed that he was found with leaflets supporting terrorism, however, the leaflets were in fact an invitation to a Kurdish New Year celebration. Stephenson was then served with a “decree of deportation” which left him with no option but to leave the country with his family or remain in detention.
Jennings added his voice to those of both the ITUC and ETUC who have also complained to Turkey about the treatment of Chris Stephenson.
He said in the letter, “UNI Global Union urges that the “decree of deportation” is cancelled so that Mr Stephenson and his family may return to Turkey and denounces the arrests and ongoing trials of Mr Stephenson’s fellow signatories and calls for their immediate release.”
The imprisonment and false trials of these activists constitute serious breaches of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression and association, as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition, Turkey has ratified ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and the Protection of the Right to Organise in 1993. The ILO Committee of Freedom of Association has confirmed that “Measures depriving trade unionists of their freedom on grounds related to their trade union activity, even where they are merely summoned or questioned or a short period, constitute an obstacle to the exercise of trade union rights.”