Interior Ministry: Turkey hosts 5.5 million foreigners, 'not all of them refugees'

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Turkey hosts 5.5 million foreigners, including 3.7 million refugees from Syria, the deputy minister of interior has announced.

"Unfortunately, we are faced with a campaign to discredit official figures in recent months," İsmail Çataklı said in a press conference on Friday (May 6).

"We are asked to respect purposive numbers stated on social media that do not have any scientific basis and are totally fabricated, instead of the official data shared by institutions with thousands of employees and digital infrastructure."

Every single person who enters the country are recorded, he said, adding, "There are currently 5 million 500 thousand 690 foreigners in Turkey and not all of them are refugees. This number includes 3 million 762 thousand 686 Syrians under temporary protection who took refuge in our country because of the Syrian civil war."

The number of refugees from Syria has not increased since 2017, he said, noting that there were 122,000 "passive records," which means "there is no sign that they are in Turkey."

Residence permits

Procedures about 320,000 foreigners are underway as part of international protection, and 1.4 million "regular immigrants" have residence permits, said Çataklı.

"They are trying to portray these 1.4 million people as Syrian and Afghan nationals who came to our country as refugees. However, this number includes all foreigners who have a residence permit in our country."

"Not every foreigner is a refugee"

"Not only refugees but also tourists come to this country from the Middle East. Last year, 4 million 512 thousand 295 people came to our country from the Middle East and North Africa for tourism purposes.

"Therefore, it is not right to describe every single dark-skinned person as an irregular immigrant ... and cause panic. Some people are targeting Turkey's tourism." (RT/VK)