Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has said refugees who are registered in Turkey but cannot be reached by the authorities at their registered places of residence have crossed illegally into Europe, citing a statement from Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, the pro-government Sabah daily reported.
The minister raised eyebrows earlier this month when he announced that out of more than 3 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey, 729,000 of them could not be located by ministry officials at their registered addresses.
He said those refugees had been warned in Turkish, Arabic and English to update their addresses within 90 days and were then allowed an additional 60 days, or else they would not be able to benefit from public services including education and healthcare.
“Frontex says 996,000 Syrians have crossed into Europe via the eastern Mediterranean and western Balkans [routes] over the past five years. Those refugees we can’t locate are among them. We count them one by one,” said the minister in an interview with Sabah.
According to Frontex’s 2023 data, the number of irregular border crossings at the EU’s external border in 2023 reached a total of approximately 380,000. Syrians accounted for over 100,000 irregular crossings last year, the highest number among all nationalities.
Giving the latest figures on the number of Syrians who can’t be located at their addresses, Yerlikaya said there are 396,738 such Syrians who cannot be reached or who did not update their addresses. He said they were given 14 more days to update their addresses. If they fail to do so, they will be denied of public services until they register their new addresses.
Yerlikaya’s statement came in the wake of a recent scandal when two military school students from Kyrgyzstan turned out to have been registered as temporary residents of an apartment in Ankara belonging to the minister without his knowledge. The incident, revealed by a journalist from the T24 news website, was later confirmed by the country’s migration authority.
An investigation has been launched into the incident, which has cast more doubt over Turkey’s registration system of migrants and efforts aimed at curbing illegal migration, by the interior ministry.
Yerlikaya also denied claims that his government was not taking sufficient action to stop illegal migration into the country, saying that not a single Syrian has been registered since June 2022.
According to the minister, there are 4,437,000 regular migrants in Turkey and 3,103,000 are Syrian refugees who have temporary protection status.
Yerlikaya said 1,109,000 of the Syrian refugees have residence permits, while 224,000 of them are under international protection.