Turkey handed work permits to more than 87,000 foreigners in 2017
ANKARA - Anadolu Agency
Turkey granted over 87,000 work permits to foreign nationals in 2017, according to data from the country’s Labor and Social Security Ministry compiled by state-run Anadolu Agency.
Overall the ministry received almost 100,000 work permit applications last year, approved almost 87 percent of them, according to the data.
Syrian citizens accounted for 24 percent of all work permits granted to foreign nationals, making Syrians the largest single group. As a result, nearly 21,000 Syrians started working in Turkey last year.
They were followed by Georgians with 7,317 work permits granted, Kyrgyzstanis with 6,360, Ukrainians with 5,761, and Chinese with 4,288.
The overall number of work permits granted last year rose from 2016, when the ministry granted 73,584 work permits to foreigners.
