Türkiye’s ongoing operations against irregular migrations have caught over a million people in the past five years, according to official figures from the Interior Ministry.
A total of 1,079,192 irregular migrants were intercepted in Türkiye since 2020, including 20,028 in 2025 alone, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Irregular migration thrived in the past two decades in Türkiye, which sits between Asia and Europe, amid escalating conflicts, poverty and other challenges plaguing the home countries of migrants.
The ministry said the number of irregular migrants caught in Türkiye was 122,302 in 2020, 162,996 in 2021, 285,027 in 2022, 254,008 in 2023 and 225,831 in 2024.
The largest number of irregular migrants in the past five years were Afghan nationals, followed by Syrians, data has shown.
Authorities caught 16,060 irregular migrants in January this year, another 10,058 in February and 4,400 more as of March 13, according to the ministry.
Migrant flow is not exclusive to Asian and Middle Eastern countries, and irregular migrants from African countries also prefer Türkiye as a destination to reach Europe in some cases.
The largest number of irregular migrants this year was from Afghanistan, Syria, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Turkmenistan, Morocco, Iran, Algiers and Azerbaijan.
In parallel, Türkiye has also expanded its crackdown on migrant smuggling, capturing 4,358 smugglers in 2020, 7,942 in 2021, 9,149 in 2022, 10,482 in 2023, 13,020 in 2024 and 2,169 as of March 13 this year.
Türkiye boosted security in its land borders while coast guard patrols were increased amid the influx, especially in the Aegean Sea, where Türkiye and Greece, the main gateway to Europe for migrants, are littoral.
Over the past five years, 105,437 migrants were intercepted in Turkish seas and rescued by the Coast Guard Command as they headed into rough seas that claimed many lives over the years. Last year alone, 23,330 people were rescued, while 41 bodies of drowned migrants were recovered. Eleven people are still missing at sea, according to statistics for 2024.
Figures showcase that irregular migration requiring search and rescue at sea peaked in 2015. In 1,540 cases, Turkish authorities rescued 58,570 people and recovered the bodies of 263 migrants that year, while 201 people were reported missing.
As of March 13, 2025, the number of foreigners holding residence permits in Türkiye was 1,076,643, including 120,301 people from Turkmenistan, 84,085 from Azerbaijan, 81,635 from Russia, 76,601 from Iran, 73,178 from Syria, 68,341 from Iraq, 58,208 from Uzbekistan, 43,934 from Kazakhstan, 36,897 from Afghanistan and 31,785 from Ukraine.
The figures also showed that some 2,810,977 Syrians in temporary protection status are currently in Türkiye.
The number of voluntary Syrian returns has reached 145,639 since December, when longtime dictator Bashar Assad fell, ushering in a new period in Syria, Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz announced mid-March.
Since the current rulers of Syria toppled the Baathist regime, Ankara has pledged support for the recovery and reconstruction of the war-torn country.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan repeatedly said no one would be forced to return to Syria and that they would continue hosting those wishing to stay. The government also granted a limited permit for returnees to return to Türkiye, which they called home for years.
Türkiye once hosted two-thirds of the world's total Syrian refugee population. At its peak, there were more than 3.8 million Syrian refugees in Türkiye.
Some preferred to cross into Europe illegally in pursuit of better lives. In the early years of the Syrian civil war, Türkiye housed thousands of refugees in tent camps and container cities in its southeastern cities, but over time, most refugees settled elsewhere, setting up new lives, particularly in big cities in western Türkiye.
