105,000 foreign citizens issued with work permits since 2016 in Turkey

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

The Ministry of Labor and Social Security has issued work permits to 104,915 foreign citizens in Turkey since 2016, it stated on March 27.

According to the data reported by the ministry’s International Labor Force Department, the province of Istanbul tops the list, hosting 38,837 foreigners who have been issued work permits.

The neighboring northwestern province of Kocaeli, with 622 work permits, is at the bottom of the list.

Of the total 105,000 work permits handed out since 2016, 39,935 have been given to Syrian citizens.

There are around 4.5 million migrants in Turkey, 3.5 million of whom are Syrians.

Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad government cracked down with unexpected ferocity on pro-democracy protests that erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more have been displaced by the conflict.