Turkish Interior Ministry says number of refugees across country is almost 5 million

Duvar English

The Turkish Interior Ministry's Directorate General of Migration Management on July 16 announced that there are 4 million 893 thousand 752 refugees living across the country.

As of the date of the announcement, the Interior Ministry will not issue a new residence permit for foreigners in 1169 neighborhoods, where the number of foreigners exceeded 20 percent compared to the number of Turkish citizens.

“The baseless comments and the figures on the number of foreigners in our country, especially in the social media, do not reflect the truth,” it added.

The statement came after the reportings that the Turkish Interior Ministry will no longer issue a new residence permit for foreigners residing in all districts of Istanbul.

On his return from the NATO summit in Vilnius, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had said, “Our citizens will soon feel the visible changes undertaken in the issue of irregular migration.”

On July 14, Interior Minister Yerlikaya similarly signalled a tougher stance against migration, tweeting that two different police operations had led to the detention of 18 people on charges of smuggling migrants.

These statements and moves come as Turkey is preparing for local elections scheduled for March 2024 and amid the growing negative public attitude toward refugees.

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