CHALLENGES REGARDING ALIENS' RIGHT TO WORK UNDER TURKISH LAW Yabancilarin Çalişma Hakkiyla İlgili Türk Hukukunda Bulunan Kisitlamalar

In many countries, aliens and citizens are not deemed equal with regard to the right to work and it is a well settled law that aliens' right to work can be subject to certain limitations. Under International Law there are not many rules which can direct governments or States to grant aliens the right to work. While Turkish law adopts the principle of equality and universality with regard to aliens' right to work, certain restrictions which have been recently imposed have compromised the application of this rule. Both the Act on Work Permits of Foreigners 1 (Law No. 4817, dated 27 February 2003) 2 and Application Regulations of this Act 3 have attempted to resolve the issues related to aliens' right to work. Although the adoption of this Law marks a new era concerning the work permits of foreigners, there are still certain difficulties and concerns with respect to procedural practice. The aim of this article is to analyze the conditions and limitations concerning aliens' right to work under Turkish Law, both in terms of international conventions which Turkey has ratified with effect to the basic regulations under its substantive law; to question their applicability and to address the issues in implementation and procedural complications and finally to address the amendments in the Act.