Turkey becomes main illegal immigration destination

Thanks to its booming economy with more job opportunities available at home, Turkey, traditionally a transit country for illegal immigrants en route to the West, has become a destination for immigration.

"Turkey is no longer a stopgap destination for immigrants, that is for sure," Ali Aslan Kilic, Turkish analyst, told Xinhua.

"In the past, a large number of immigrants mostly from Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Myanmar, Pakistan, Afghanistan and African countries were using Turkey as a stepping stone to make their way to richer countries in Europe," he said.

"This has changed in the last decade or so," Kilic added.

A recent research indicates that nearly one-third of illegal immigrants decide to settle in Turkey rather than moving to another country.

"Turkey has become more attractive to illegal immigrants as the country has a developing economy and welfare," said Atilla Sandikli, head of the Istanbul-based Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies.

There is also rising Islamophobia in most European countries where immigrants from poor Muslim countries find themselves at unease, which is also a contributing factor for them to stay in Turkey, analysts said.

According to Turkish interior ministry, the number of illegal immigrants entering Turkey every year is 150,000 on average. However, the large influx of illegal immigrants posed challenges for Turkey in terms of rising social security costs and crime while boosting smuggling rings across the country.

Mehmet Ozcan, head of the Ankara Strategy Institute, stated that Turkey should find better ways to deal with this problem, adding that it is not enough to only take security measures. " Turkey should also focus on increasing pressure on human smugglers, " Ozcan underlined.

"As long as the political unrest in neighboring countries continues along its current path, these population movements and number of smugglers will continue to increase accordingly," he said.

This problem puts burden on the country's infrastructure, making it difficult to accommodate large number of people who want to stay in Turkey.