ANKARA, Feb 18 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkey said yesterday that, it had granted citizenship to 194,000 Syrians, including 84,000 children, by the end of 2021.
There are around 3.7 million Syrians under temporary protection in Turkey, and have been registered by the authorities, the state-run broadcaster, TRT, quoted Turkish Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, as telling reporters.
“In some regions, the Syrian population accounts for over 25 percent of the total,” he said, adding that, the government has put a limit on residence for immigrants in these regions.
Foreigners, including Syrian immigrants, will no longer be accepted for residence in these regions, and the only exceptions are for students, cases related to healthcare and broken families, said the Turkish minister.
Turkey accepted millions of Syrians fleeing a civil war back home, since 2011. In many camps in south-eastern Turkey, near the Syrian border, immigrants were initially welcomed under an “open door” policy.
In the past three years, nearly half a million Syrians have been voluntarily sent back to northern Syria, controlled by the Turkish army, according to official figures.
