The immigration office of Turkey’s Interior Ministry has released the latest data on Syrian refugees in the country, whose numbers have increased from 2,834,441 in 2016 to 3,049,879, the Birgün daily reported on Tuesday.
According to the data from the immigration office, Syrians in Turkey, whose population has been steadily increasing since a civil war broke out in Syria, make up 96 percent of Kilis province, 25.19 percent of Hatay, 22.1 percent of Şanlıurfa and 16.89 percent of Gaziantep.
The data show that the majority of Syrians in Turkey are living in Istanbul, with 485,227 residents. The city with the second largest Syrian population is Şanlıurfa with 428,838 people. It is followed by Hatay with 391,694 Syrians and Gaziantep with 333,518. The cities with the fewest Syrian migrants are Bartın, Bayburt and Artvin.
More than half of the Syrian population is below 25 years of age: 12.3 percent of them are between 0-4 years old, 14.2 between 5-9, 10.7 percent between 10-14, 8.5 percent between 15-18 and 14.8 percent is between 19-24 years of age, making up 60.5 percent of Syrians in Turkey.
A total of 246,720 Syrians are living in 23 refugee camps situated in 10 provinces, while 2,803,159 are living outside the camps.
As part of the “One in, one out” deal that was signed between Turkey and the European Union in March 2016, 6,465 Syrians have been sent to Europe.
A total of 12,212 Syrian immigrants and 1,545 human smugglers have been captured since June. The number of illegal immigrants trying to enter Turkey has reached 61,754. The data showed that 7,054 were captured as they were trying to enter Turkey illegally.