Türkiye is home to 3.63 million foreign nationals with legal residence status, including more than 2.26 million Syrians under temporary protection, Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said Thursday as he outlined the government's migration and border security policies.
In a statement following a parliamentary consultation meeting attended by lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Çiftçi said 3,632,064 foreign nationals currently have legal status in Türkiye.
Of those, 2,264,983 are Syrians living under temporary protection, he said.
The minister added that 1.425 million Syrians returned to their homeland voluntarily, safely and with dignity between 2016 and 2026.
Türkiye has hosted the world's largest refugee population since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, while authorities have increasingly emphasized voluntary returns as security conditions improve in parts of northern Syria.
