A Removal Decision While Your Trial Is Still Running: which one happens first?

Article 54 of Law no. 6458 lists the foreign nationals about whom a removal decision is taken, and only the first sub-paragraph depends on a criminal outcome. Sub-paragraph (a) covers those assessed as requiring removal within the scope of Article 59 of the Turkish Penal Code — and Article 59 is written for the end of a case, not the middle of one: a foreign national sentenced to imprisonment is reported to the Ministry of the Interior after a decision has been taken on execution under probation or on conditional release, and in any event once execution of the sentence has been completed.

While your trial is running, none of that has happened yet. So the governorate reaches for a different sub-paragraph of the same list, and several of them do not care what the criminal court eventually decides:

• 54/1-d — those who constitute a threat to public order, public security or public health. An indictment is not a conviction, but it is material an administrative authority can weigh.
• 54/1-e — those who exceed their visa or visa exemption by more than ten days, or whose visa is cancelled.
• 54/1-f — those whose residence permits are cancelled.
• 54/1-g — permit holders who, after expiry, exceed the period by more than ten days without an acceptable excuse.
• 54/1-ğ — those found to be working without a work permit.

The practical point is uncomfortable. Weeks in custody or on remand consume a permit that nobody is renewing, so by the time you are released the status ground may have created itself. Article 55 is the only list that prevents a decision being taken at all — serious indications of the death penalty, torture or inhuman or degrading treatment in the destination country; travel considered risky by reason of serious health problems, age or pregnancy; life-threatening illness under treatment with no treatment available where you would be sent; trafficking victims in the victim support process; and victims of psychological, physical or sexual violence until their treatment is complete. An open criminal case is not on it.

The removal decision and the removal itself are separate events, and it is the second one that can be held.

Article 53/3, as amended in November 2024, says it plainly: subject to the foreign national's own consent, they are not removed during the period for bringing the action, or, where the judicial route is used, until the proceedings have concluded. Seven days from notification, an application to the administrative court, notice of that application to the authority that made the decision, and a ruling within fifteen days of the file being complete. That ruling is final.

The travel ban is the part people misread. An obligation under Article 109/3-a is not to leave the country; it is imposed by a judge where the grounds for remand in Article 100 exist, and only a judge can touch it. Under Article 110/2 the court may add, vary or remove obligations; under Article 111/1 the judge or court may decide within five days after taking the prosecutor's opinion — the Code sets no binding deadline — and Article 111/2 allows an objection. Article 110/4 requires the need for the obligation to be reviewed at intervals of no more than four months. What actually persuades a court to lift it is set out on the page on travel bans during a Turkish criminal case.

The crossing point is the moment of release. Article 57/1 provides that foreign nationals within the scope of Article 54 who are apprehended by law enforcement are reported immediately to the governorate, and that the assessment and decision period cannot exceed forty-eight hours. An order releasing you from criminal custody is not an order releasing you into the street.

Where a removal decision is taken, Article 57/2 permits administrative detention for those assessed as presenting a risk of absconding or disappearing, those who breached entry or exit rules, those who used false or unfounded documents, those who did not leave within the period given without an acceptable excuse, and those who present a threat to public order, public security or public health. Those detained are taken to a removal centre within forty-eight hours. The alternative is Article 57/A: residence at a specified address, reporting, family-based return, return counselling, voluntary public-benefit work, security, or electronic monitoring — for no more than twenty-four months, and mandatory for anyone within Article 57/2 who is not detained.

Detention under Article 57/3 cannot exceed six months, extendable by up to six further months where removal cannot be completed because the person will not cooperate or will not give correct information or documents about their country. Article 57/4 requires the governorate to review the necessity every month. Article 57/6 sends a challenge to the criminal judge of peace, who decides within five days; the application does not suspend the detention and the judge's decision is final. What that regime looks like from inside is described on the page on removal centres and administrative detention.

Article 56 gives those subject to a removal decision a period of not less than fifteen days and up to thirty days to leave Türkiye, where the decision says so, and an Exit Permit Document is issued free of charge. Article 9/5 then provides that an entry ban may be dispensed with — alınmayabilir — for someone invited to leave under Article 56 who leaves within the period given. That is a discretion exercised in the foreign national's favour, not a guarantee. Article 9/2 does the opposite for those who are removed: their entry is prohibited. Article 9/3 sets the ban at a maximum of five years, extendable by up to ten further years where there is a serious threat to public order or public security, and Article 9/6 lets the Directorate General lift it or allow entry for a defined period.

Now put a travel ban on top of that. You have been given fifteen to thirty days to leave a country a criminal court has ordered you not to leave. The period expires, and Article 57/2 lists failure to leave within the period given, without an acceptable excuse, as a ground for administrative detention. The excuse exists — you were judicially forbidden to go — but it has to be on the file before the period runs, not explained afterwards.

The statute acknowledges the collision in one place. Article 57/A(7) provides that where a security is taken and the foreign national does not leave Türkiye within the period, the security is forfeited to the Treasury, save in cases of force majeure and where the court process has not ended. An unfinished criminal case is written into the law itself as a reason not to have left.

Removal does not close the case behind you. Article 193/1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is the starting position: save where the law provides otherwise, no hearing is held in the absence of the accused, and an accused who does not appear without a valid reason is brought by force. Article 195 is the narrow exception — where the offence carries only a judicial fine or confiscation, the hearing may proceed without you, and the summons must say so. Article 193/2 allows the case to be finished in your absence only where the evidence points to something other than conviction, a no-penalty decision or a security measure.

Otherwise you become what Article 244/1 calls a gaip: an accused who is abroad and cannot be brought before the competent court. Under Article 244/2 no hearing is opened; the court secures and preserves the evidence and waits. That is where Article 246 matters — a court may give an absent accused a document guaranteeing that they will not be remanded if they attend, and may attach conditions to it; the guarantee lapses if a prison sentence is imposed, if the accused prepares to flee, or if the conditions are broken. The other label is Article 247, kaçak, which additionally attracts the measures in Article 248 — seizure of property and remand in absentia — although the güvence belgesi in Article 246 remains available to a kaçak as well, because Article 248/7 applies Article 246 to them. The route back for a hearing is set out on the page on safe conduct documents in Turkish proceedings.

Two authorities, two files, two deadlines, and the shorter one is seven days. How the immigration side runs in full — how the decision is made and served, who cannot be removed at all, and how an entry ban is lifted — is on the page on deportation and entry bans in Türkiye.