Over 73,000 foreigners given work permits in 2016 in Turkey, Syrians take lion’s share

ANKARA

AA Photo

Turkey’s Labor Ministry offered work permits to 73,584 foreigners from among 86,467 applicants in 2016, according to a data compiled by state-run Anadolu Agency. 

Syrians took the lion's share with 13,298 work permits, the data released on Jan. 18 stated. 

Other foreigners included; 7,635 Georgians, 5,593 Ukrainians, 4,395 Chinese nationals, 3,474 Turkmens, 3,049 Kyrgyz nationals, 2,435 Uzbek nationals, 1,970 Indians and 1,966 Russians, who started working in Turkey in 2016.  

They were followed by 1,191 Britons, 1,165 Germans, 1,134 U.S. nationals, 888 Italians and 725 French nationals. 

Of the total recipients, 37,965 people were males and 35,619 were females. 

The ministry, which rejected some 2,483 applications in the past year, is yet to make decisions over 968 applications. 

The ministry also returned some 9,432 applications due to several reasons. 

Turkey issued work permits to 14,201 foreigners in 2010; 17,467 in 2011; 32,277 in 2012; 45,834 in 2013; 52,304 in 2014 and 64,833 in 2015.