An employment package has been prepared for Syrian refugees in Turkey. It is expected that Syrian refugees who will be given identity cards will be hired in nearly 1 million vacant, labor-intensive positions in line with their qualifications. The parliamentary counsel will start to discuss the legal regulations that will facilitate work permits for them, following the Nov. 1 general elections. Turkish Employment Organization (İŞKUR) data suggests that there are 500,000 vacancies for refugees who say they can work in all kinds of jobs. The package will also remove the requirement for work permits from occupational organizations for qualified refugees and will facilitate the employment processes for them.
The package includes a number of topics such as workplace quotas as well as in which cities and sectors Syrians will work. Accordingly, it will be forbidden to employ Syrians in the provinces that pose problems with regard to security and the labor force. The regulation, which will be put into practice with a Cabinet decree, aims to officially register Syrian refugees and to prevent the victimization of Turkish citizens in the labor market.
A total of 723,000 people have been hired in a total of 1.73 million vacancies this year, meaning that there are nearly one million vacancies in Turkey as of now. Nearly 400,000 of them are manual laborers working in the service, industry, construction and agriculture sectors. The İŞKUR will pay regard to cities and sectors that continuously suffer from employee shortages, while hiring Syrian refugees.
Syrian refugees will be employed in small provinces such as Bitlis, Siirt and Bayburt in order to avoid overcrowding in Gaziantep and Mersin, which are in great demand with Syrians. They will be granted work permits even if they do not have residence permits in the provinces where they will settle. They will also be ensured to work on legal grounds to avoid shadow employment in the cities of Gaziantep, Hatay, Istanbul and Mersin. The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) will keep statistical records of refugee employment and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) will carry out intelligence work for each refugee. Those who are found to commit offenses will be excluded from employment. The regulations that are being set for Syrian employment also ease the process of employing qualified foreign labor, as well as qualified ones, such as engineers and translators, will be hired in line with the demands from companies. An applicant will be required to have resided in Turkey for 18 months to be employed.
Syrians will be ensured to work on legal grounds in terms of insurance and labor safety. Sanctions will be aggravated for workplaces that employ Syrians without work permits. They will also be paid low premiums by the state. The relevant ministries' approval will be requested to employ Syrians in fields such as health and education. The refugee employment in industrial cities such as Kocaeli will be have imposed quotas. Accordingly, Syrians will not be employed in provinces that pose problems in terms of security and labor force and a 10 percent quota will be put in place for some jobs. Refugees will supply the workforce for vacant jobs in seasonal and part-time jobs. A wage scale will be set for Syrians and they will not be paid below the minimum wage in line with the positions they are hired. The regulation also aims to shorten the work permit process on the e-devlet online service.
