Turkey’s Interior Ministry releases latest data on Syrians in the country
ÇAĞLAR BALLIKTAŞ
Since the emergence of civil war in Syria, the number of people coming from Syria to Turkey to seek temporary asylum has continuously grown.
According to latest data released by the immigration office of Turkey’s Interior Ministry, while the population of border province of Kilis is recorded as 130825, the number of Syrians in the province – which is only about 10 km from Syria – is 96% (126248) of that population. Following Kilis, Hatay (25%); Urfa (22%); and, Antep (16%) are the cities with highest Syrian population ratio.
With over 485 thousand Syrians, İstanbul is the city with the most number of asylum seekers. İstanbul is followed with Urfa (428K); Hatay (390K); and, Antep (333K) in terms of number of Syrians.
Cities with least number of Syrians are Bartın (39); Bayburt (42); and, Artvin (45).
According to data of the Ministry, the registered number Syrians in the country has also increased, reaching 3 million 49 thousand 879. Within the past six months, over 215K Syrians were added to the registry. The recorded number of Syrians in the registry last year was 2 million 834 thousand 441, while it was around 2.5 million in 2015 and over 1.5 million in 2014.
Data also reflected that 60% of the Syrian asylum seekers in Turkey are under age 25. Of this young group, 12% is under 4; 14% is between ages 5-9; 10% is 10-14; 8.5% is 15-18; and, 14.8% is 19-24.
Another detail reflected in the data of the Ministry showed that the number of Syrians staying in refugee camps is quite low, with only 246720 people living in 23 camps set up in 10 provinces…
It has also been observed that the number of those trying to enter Turkey through illegal means has also increased. As of June, the number of illegal immigrants from Syria caught in Turkey was recorded as 12 thousand for the first six months of 2017.
Front-page article of BirGün published on 27 June 2017, Tuesday with the headline of 'Time to face the facts'