Ankara - Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) has released its 2020 Treatment Center Report. The number of people applied to the HRFT for torture and ill-treatment increased by 11 percent last year in Turkey and the number of women who stated that they were tortured increased by 10 percent compared to 2018, according to the report. 205 women, who said “I had been tortured”, applied to the HRFT in 2020, the report says. The report reveals that the average age of the tortured people decreased from 36 to 33. The rate of people reported that they had faced sexual torture increased from 27 percent to 44 percent in 2020.

“In 2020, 562 people applied to the HRFT for allegedly being subjected to torture and ill-treatment while the number of applications in 2018 was 505. In 2020, 205 women applied to the HRFT while this number was 186 in 2018. The average age of people who went to a hospital due to torture they had faced in 2020 was 33 while it was 36 in 2019. 382 of the people (73.6%) who applied to the HRFT in 2020 stated that they were unemployed. In 2018, 68 percent of those who claimed to have been tortured were unemployed. 283 out of 562 people (50%), who applied to the HRFT, claimed that they had been subjected to torture at police headquarters; 73 of them (13%) claimed that they had been subjected to torture in detention centers such as police stations,” the report says.

Sexual torture increased

According to the report, 90 percent of people, who applied to the HRFT, claimed that they had been subjected to insult while this number was 80% in 2018. The rate of people who claimed that they had been subjected to physical attack, was 73%. The rate of those who claimed to have been sexually tortured increased from 27 percent to 44 percent in the last two years.