Syrian refugees make up 4 pct of Istanbul's population

By Halil Ibrahim Baser

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkish municipalities revealed on Wednesday that nearly four percent of Istanbul’s population are Syrian refugees.

The Marmara Municipalities’ Union published a report showing nearly 540,000 Syrian nationals resided in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city.

Almost 479,000 of those have temporary protection status, giving them the right to work under a Turkish law issued on 15 Jan. last year.

The report also revealed around five million refugees entered Turkey since April 2011, but the country now hosts nearly 3.2 million Syrian people -- 258,000 of these in refugee camps.

These camps, run with the support of many institutions, have been transformed into modern living spaces with infrastructure, social spaces, healthcare facilities and education services.

Turkey has spent around $25 billion helping and sheltering refugees since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.

Syria’s war has raged since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more displaced by the conflict.