Türkiye records highest number of deportations in 2022

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Türkiye deported 119,817 refugees and prevented the entry of 271,311 others in 2022, according to figures released yesterday (December 25) by the Directorate of Migration Management.

Since 2016, Türkiye has prevented 2.7 million refugees from entering the country, said the directorate.

"With the measures taken, we saw a 38 percent decrease in illegal entry attempts in the east and south borders.

"Due to our inspections and operations, the number of irregular migrants caught increased by 76 percent compared to the same period last year, with a total of 231 thousand."

"The highest number of deportations"

According to the Migration directorate, this year saw the highest number of deportations in the country's history, with a total of 119,817 deportation cases, but this will likely increase over this month. A 159 percent increase compared to last year.

In comparison to 2021, the people being deported, especially those coming from Afghanistan and Pakistan, saw a large increase of respectively 236 percent and 22 percent. Furthermore, a 167 increase was noted from people with other nationalities. "Since 2016, the number of irregular migrants deported reached 445,326", the Migration directorate noted.

66,534 irregular migrants from Afghanistan were sent back, 44,433 people with 234 charter flights, and 22,101 with regular flights. 12,385 people were deported to Pakistan.

Deportation rate

The directorate further explained that their deportation rate was 70 percent, whereas that of the EU is only 11 percent.

"According to Eurostat data, although a total of 709,900 irregular migrants were detected in European Union countries in 2021, 80,470 of them were deported. In 2022, the number of irregular migrants deported by all European countries was announced as 53,885 as of the end of September. While the average deportation success rate of European countries remained at the level of 11 percent, our country's deportation success rate was recorded as 70 percent when deportation proceedings and repeated arrests are excluded.

Removal centers

The capacity of the Migration directorate's deportation centers has increased by 30 percent to a capacity to hold 20,540 people.

"Our country surpassed the deportation center capacity in all European countries. Currently, 18,776 foreigners of 107 different nationalities are under administrative detention in our deportation centers. (AS/WM/VK)