Some 4 million refugees
Turkey continues to be home to the world’s largest refugee population.
Key locations
Over 98 per cent of refugees in Turkey live in urban, peri-urban and rural areas, while the remaining refugees live in Temporary Accommodation Centres.
Refugee youth
Close to 1.4 million refugees in Turkey are under 15 years old, and over 800,000 are aged between 15 and 24.
Working with Partners and Public Institutions
The Government of Turkey leads the refugee response with UNHCR providing operational and capacity development support. Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees in the world and its response to refugees has been generous and positive. Turkish legislation (Law on Foreigners and International Protection and Temporary Protection Regulation) provides refugees and asylum-seekers with a range of rights, including access to education, health care and social services, upon registration with the authorities. Nonetheless, protection and capacity gaps continue to be observed in the implementation of the legal framework, in particular due to the scale of the needs. UNHCR Turkey has a country office in Ankara and field presence in Istanbul, Izmir, Gaziantep,
Hatay, ?anl?urfa and Van.In supporting the refugee response in Turkey, UNHCR works in partnership with public institutions at the national, provincial and local levels, including municipalities, with international and national non-governmental organisations, with United Nations sister agencies, with private service providers as well as with refugees themselves.
As the Refugee Agency, UNHCR provides for coordination of the support of partners to Turkey’s refugee response, with a view to avoid duplication and gaps, and address unmet needs of refugees and asylum-seekers. In this role, UNHCR co-leads with UNDP the Regional Refugee and Resilience Response Plan (3RP) in response to the Syria crisis, and chairs the International Protection and Migration Results Group of the Turkey 2016-2020 UN Development and Cooperation Strategy (UNDCS). Through sector working groups and other fora,
UNHCR contributes to improving referral networks to public service providers and working towards the complementarity of interventions by the different actors in the response.