Türkiye copes with the irregular migration phenomenon as crises across the world once again put it at the forefront of migrant influx as a gateway to Europe. Balancing a humanitarian policy and the need to stop thousands from risking their lives, Türkiye heightened measures against irregular migration.
Briefing the lawmakers on Thursday, Atilla Toros, head of the Directorate of Migration told a parliamentary committee that authorities intercepted more than 105,000 irregular migrants between June 1 and Sept. 29. He stated that they were looking for ways to better handle the issue.
Toros said they were working on what they called implementing the “Istanbul model” of tackling irregular migration. Türkiye’s most populated city is also among the most popular destinations for irregular migrants, either working and living illegally or looking to contact migrant smugglers to secretly travel to Europe, through the Greek or Bulgarian border.
The directorate set up what it called “mobile migration points” to speed up the processing of irregular migrants in the city. “Migration points” help law enforcement in the field check for irregular migrants and so far, 38 points have been set up in the city. Starting on Oct. 1, similar points were introduced in Adana, the capital of Ankara, Bursa and Izmir.
“Migration points” use a fingerprint database to check the identity of suspected irregular migrants and cuts the red tape for legal migrants who have to prove that they have permits, often by visiting police stations. Mobile points will be available in the entire country in December.
The migration authority director said Türkiye has seen a dramatic number of irregular migrants intercepted this year and some 40,417 irregular migrants intercepted in the period between June 1 and Sept. 29 were in Istanbul. He stated that security forces also apprehended 6,786 migrant smugglers so far this year.
Last July, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that measures against irregular migration would be tightened in the coming months.
“Our citizens will soon witness tangible changes in irregular migration. Our security forces have tightened measures and work,” Erdoğan told journalists back then. "The fight against irregular migration never stopped. Many steps will be implemented in the works of police as well as border security. It is imperative that these migrants are prevented from entering Türkiye, and that those who are apprehended are taken to shelters or migrant centers," Erdoğan continued, underlining the importance of preventing entries from northern Syria.
"As soon as illegal migrants are apprehended, they are sent to repatriation centers and necessary actions are initiated there. They are sent to their countries, and through this, we eliminate the anxiety and fear of our people," the president said.
Refugees are widely embraced by the public, but opposition parties often look to fuel a xenophobic, anti-refugee discourse. Most recently, Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairperson Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu vowed to "send Syrians back" in his presidential campaign earlier this year.
Unlike Kılıçdaroğlu, Erdoğan has advocated improving the situation in northern Syria, contributing to the stalled political process in the country and encouraging voluntary and safe returns of Syrians. According to government figures, around 500,000 have returned in this manner.
Türkiye has made large investments in social cohesion policies to enable Syrians to smoothly integrate into Turkish society.
Atilla Toros told lawmakers that Türkiye had more than 4.7 million foreigners living legally as of Sept. 28 and Syrians in temporary protection status made up more than 3.2 million of those foreigners.
