According to the latest data from Turkey's Interior Ministry, there are nearly 5 million refugees residing in the country. The Migration Department of the ministry released a statement on Sunday, clarifying that the official number of refugees is regularly updated and published on their website on a weekly basis. The statement was issued in response to misleading information circulating on social media, claiming that the number of refugees in Turkey reaches 17 million. The ministry emphasized that such figures are baseless and do not reflect the reality.
The statement also highlighted that Turkey has taken measures to address population density by closing 1,169 neighborhoods to foreigners seeking residence permits. These neighborhoods have a population exceeding 20 percent in relation to Turkish citizens, with 54 of them located in Istanbul.
The response from the migration authorities follows an article published by the Milliyet newspaper last Friday, which falsely claimed that all 39 municipalities in Istanbul had ceased issuing primary residence permits to foreigners. The Migration Department clarified that the list of closed districts in Istanbul has remained unchanged since October of the previous year and includes 10 municipalities with 54 neighborhoods.
According to Turkish authorities, as of 2022, there were 5.4 million foreigners living in the country, with nearly 1.3 million residing in Istanbul, accounting for approximately 8% of the city's population. Among the foreign residents, over 500,000 are Syrian citizens. The newly appointed Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has pledged to resolve the issue of illegal migration within a few months. In recent weeks, Istanbul's police have conducted daily operations against illegal migrants, resulting in the detention of over 5,000 individuals, mostly Syrians, throughout the city, including tourist areas, according to Milliyet.
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Based on materials from TASS