According to data provided by the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND), 1,020 academics and other well-educated people from Turkey applied for jobs in the Netherlands during the first 11 months of 2018, BBC Turkish service reported on Sunday.
The report, based on a newscast broadcast by Dutch TV channel NOS, revealed that a brain drain from Turkey to the Netherlands has recently seen a significant increase.
IND figures indicate that 1,020 highly educated individuals of Turkish origin applied for jobs in the Netherlands in the first 11 months of 2018, up from 780 in 2017 and 540 in 2016.
The report also said based on IND statistics that 1,080 people, most of them members or supporters of the Gülen movement, requested asylum in the Netherlands in the first 11 months of 2018, over 481 in 2017 and 235 in 2016.
The New York Times on Thursday published a report on the exodus of wealthy or talented Turks, citing as reasons fear of political persecution, terrorism, a deepening distrust of the judiciary, arbitrariness of the rule of law and a deteriorating business climate, accelerated by worries that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is unsoundly manipulating management of the economy to benefit himself and his inner circle.
While the Times had claimed, referring to the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), that more than a quarter of a million Turks emigrated in 2017, an official statement released by Turkish Presidency’s Human Resources Office on Saturday refuted the claim and pointed out that the number provided by the Times report included non-Turkish citizens and that only 113,326 Turks had emigrated in 2017.