The Labor and Social Security Ministry issued work permits to 87,000 foreigners last year, with Syrian citizens leading the way, receiving 24 percent of the issued permits.

Thousands of people from around the world applied to the Labor and Social Security Ministry in 2017 to receive a work permit in Turkey. The ministry, which carefully examined the applications, approved around 87,190 of the nearly 100,000 applications made last year.

The ministry, which rejected around 3,631 applications, returned nearly 13,000 files for various reasons, while it has not yet decided on 1,762 applications that are in the examination stage.

Around 20,970 Syrians began working in Turkey last year with the permission of the ministry, accounting for about 24 percent of the allowed work permits.

Syrians were followed by Georgia with 7,317 citizens receiving work permit, Kyrgyzstan with 6,360, Ukraine with 5,761, China with 4,288, Turkmenistan with 3,847, India with 3,055, Uzbekistan with 2,465, Azerbaijan with 2,449 and Russia with 2,390.

While there were 960 Germans, 956 British, 983 Americans, 649 Italian and 543 French among those granted work permits last year, Turkey provided jobs for people from around the world, including Finland, Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Estonia and Peru.

Meanwhile, the ministry issued 17,467 work permits in 2011, 32,277 in 2012, 45,834 in 2013, 52,304 in 2014, 64,833 in 2015 and 73,584 in 2016.

ISTANBUL / DAILY SABAH WITH AA