Turkish authorities give unregistered Syrians two months to leave Istanbul

Turkish authorities have given Syrians living in Istanbul without being registered there two months to leave the city and return to provinces where they had originally registered.

A statement from the Turkish presidency of migration released on Saturday said that Syrians who had been given temporary protection in Turkey and were currently living in Istanbul after registering in other Turkish provinces had to return to those areas by 24 September.

Syrians who present themselves to the migration presidency before that will be given a “travel permit” allowing them to return to the Turkish provinces they registered in.

Excluded from the decision are Syrians who fled from their provinces of registration due to the 6 February Turkey-Syria earthquake and received a travel permit allowing them to remain in Istanbul.

The Turkish authorities’ latest decree comes amid an ongoing wave of deportations targeting Syrian refugees amid increasing xenophobia and racism against Syrians.

There are over 3.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey and most of them have been given “temporary protection” rather than refugee status. This restricts their movements in Turkey and allows authorities to deport them to Syria at any time.

Istanbul hosts more Syrian refugees than any other Turkish city, with over 500,000 living there.

Hundreds of Syrians, mostly living in Istanbul, have been deported ever since the 14 May presidential elections which were won by longtime Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish authorities have used the fact that Syrians are not registered in Istanbul as a justification to deport them to Syria.

The deportations have previously been condemned by human rights groups and have sparked anger on social media.

Turkish interior minister Ali Yerlikaya has previously said that Turkey is cracking down on “irregular foreign immigrants” and that he had issued instructions to pursue them “across the country”, adding that he hoped their numbers would decrease within four to five months.