(Zaman Al Wasl)- A new decision on residency conditions for foreigners has disconcerted Syrians residing in Turkey. The decision stipulates the cancellation of renewal of tourist residency for foreigners whose stay has exceeded one year.
The decision states that foreigners who have resided in Turkey for a year or more under a tourist residence permit will not be able to renew it until January 01, 2020, unless they are replaced with another type. This did not exclude Syrians as usual due to their large number.
Zaman al-Wasl contacted the Communication Center for Foreigners in Turkey via 157 phone number, and one of the employees confirmed the decision.
Tourist residency in Turkey is granted to a foreigner who has entered Turkish territory legally through an air or seaport for six months or more, at a cost not exceeding US $150, including health insurance fees.
Work permits are granted to a foreigner who resides legally within Turkish territory and who made a formal application through the Ministry of Labor to obtain it through their employer. Turkish law provides for a ‘quota’ imposed on the company applying for a residence for a foreign employee to employ five other Turks, prompting many foreigners, including Syrians, to work illegally.
Syrians were previously exempted from the ‘quota’. This decision comes at the same time with the campaign to deport Syrian refugees who violated residency laws to northern Syria.
Syrians who hold the temporary protection card are not concerned with this decision, since their residence is regulated by the temporary protection law, which does not require changing the type of residence.
However, card holders are required to reside in the cities in which their cards were issued. They are authorized to travel between Turkish provinces with a travel authorization, but they are not allowed to return to Turkey if they leave to another country.
Turkey hosts some 3.6 million refugees who fled the eight-year-old civil war, more than any other country. The Syrian population in Istanbul, home to some 15 million people, had swollen to more than half a million, more than those in any other Turkish city, according to Reuters.
On Friday, the Istanbul governor’s office said more than 6,000 Syrian migrants in Istanbul were sent to temporary housing centres in other provinces since early July.
Ankara wants to settle some Syrian refugees in a swathe of land it now controls in northeast Syria, after it launched an offensive last month against the Kurdish YPG militia.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch last month published reports saying Turkey is forcibly sending Syrian refugees to northern Syria. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry called the claims in the reports “false and imaginary.”
Eight years of war in Syria have killed 560,000 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6 million as refugees to neighbouring countries.
Zaman Al Wasl
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.