Türkiye: Over 41,000 Afghan Nationals Hold Turkish Residency
Data from the Turkish Ministry of Interior's Directorate General of Migration Management indicates that 41,978 Afghan nationals currently hold residency permits in Turkey.
The Directorate, in a statement on Tuesday, also noted that over 30,000 Afghan refugees in Turkey have been granted short-term residency documents.
The latest figures show that in the new year, the total number of foreign nationals living legally in Turkey has reached 1,107,032.
Afghan citizens are the ninth largest group of residency permit recipients in Turkey, according to the Directorate's data.
The highest numbers of residency permits were issued to nationals from Turkmenistan, Russia, and Iraq, in that order.
The Directorate also shared statistics on the detention of migrants lacking legal documentation in 2023 and the current year.
In 2024, the highest number of detentions involved Afghan nationals, with 2,480 cases reported.
Similarly, in 2023, Afghans accounted for the majority of migrants detained without residency permits, totaling 68,687. Some of these individuals were later deported.
Turkey serves as a primary migration route for thousands of Afghan refugees seeking to reach Europe.
