Nearly 3 million Syrians registered in Turkey: Interior Ministry

ANKARA

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Nearly 3 million Syrians are currently registered in Turkey, according to statistics released by the Interior Ministry’s Directorate General of Migration Management. 

Sharing statistics regarding numbers of Syrians, protection applications, irregular migrants caught, and foreigners given residence permits, the directorate stated via its Twitter account that a total of 2,957,454 Syrians are currently registered in Turkey with biometric data. 

Out of the total number of Syrians in Turkey, 1,580,866 are men and 1,367,588 are women, it added.
Those aged between 19 and 24 constitute the majority of male Syrians in Turkey, with 246,439. For female Syrians, the age group with the highest population is between five and nine, with 205,821. The number of Syrians over the age of 90 is 1,297, with 578 men and 719 women. 

The number of Syrians living in Turkey under temporary protection rose steadily from 2011, when the war in Syria began. In 2012 the number of Syrians under temporary protection status was 14,237, rising to nearly 3 million in 2017.  

Some 282,518 people have applied to Turkey for international protection since 2005. In 2005 some 2,935 applied for international protection while this number rose to 66,167 in 2016. 

The sharpest increase in international protection applications took place between 2014 and 2015, with the number increasing to 64,232 from 34,112.

The directorate also gave information regarding the number of irregular migrants caught between 1998 and 2016. According to the figures, the security forces caught a total of 1,281,969 migrants over the past 19 years by the security forces. The number of migrants caught in 1998, which was 29,426, rose to 174,466 in 2016. 

The number of irregular migrants caught particularly increased between 2014 and 2015. In 2014, security forces caught some 58,647 migrants, whereas the number sharply increased to 146,485 in the following year. 

Meanwhile, between 2005 and 2016, a total of 3,258,207 foreigners obtained residence permits to live in Turkey, with 461,217 such permits given in the last year. 

The trend in foreigners living in Turkey with residence permit was not stable. The sharpest increase happened between 2011 and 2012, with the number 234,268 in 2011 and 321,548 the following year. The sharpest decline, meanwhile, took place between 2007 and 2008.