Turkey eases job rules for 1M+ Syrians under temporary protection: What to know

ANKARA — Turkey has eased work permit rules for foreigners under temporary protection, a move that could affect roughly 1.1 million working-age Syrians.

“We removed the obligation to obtain work permits and introduced a work permit exemption for foreigners under temporary protection,” Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci announced last week.

Turkey currently hosts around 2.6 million foreigners under temporary protection, including roughly 2.5 million Syrians, according to official statistics. Among them, about 1.1 million are between the ages of 18 and 65.

Turkey grants temporary protection status to foreigners who fled the civil war, giving them access to basic services such as healthcare, education and limited labor-market rights without granting them formal refugee status. The number of unregistered Syrians who live in Turkey remains unknown. 

What changed: Turkey introduced a work permit requirement for Syrians under temporary protection in 2016. Under the initial rules, employers were allowed to hire one Syrian worker for every 10 Turkish employees, a quota that was later eased to one Syrian worker for every five Turkish employees.

Refugee rights groups have long said that work permit requirements prompted widespread informal employment among Syrians, many of whom work in sectors such as agriculture, textiles, construction, manufacturing and services.

According to the Asylum Information Database, a European refugee-rights monitoring platform, Turkey issued more than 100,000 work permits in 2024 to Syrians under temporary protection, while more than 1 million Syrians were estimated to be working informally without legal protections or labor rights.

Why it matters: Turkish authorities have yet to clarify whether the measure applies across all sectors or remains subject to existing limits. However, the exemption appears to remove the need for employer-sponsored work permit applications for foreigners under temporary protection, allowing them to enter formal employment more easily. 

Metin Corabatir, a former Turkey spokesperson at the UN Refugee Agency and president of the Ankara-based Research Centre on Asylum and Migration, described the decision as “revolutionary.”

Corabatir said employers had previously applied for work permits through Turkey’s employment agency, but many applications were rejected without clear explanation, contributing to informal employment.

“This is very positive in terms of recognizing refugees’ right to employment as part of their basic rights to integration and life,” Corabatir told Al-Monitor, highlighting labor needs in agriculture and heavy industry.

Turkey’s economy was beginning to face labor shortages as Syrians returned home, Corabatir said. “The new measure will now lay the groundwork for those gaps to be filled in the coming years by Syrians who do not want to return to their country, but in a registered system that meets international standards.”

The move also comes as part of a broader easing of restrictions on Syrians under temporary protection. Last month, Turkey also relaxed intercity travel restrictions for Syrians holding temporary protection status.

Know more: Ciftci, who visited Syria on Tuesday, met with his Syrian counterpart, Enes Hattab, as well as Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa.

“We told our Syrian counterparts that we expect supportive, facilitative and encouraging policies to be developed for our brothers and sisters who have returned, particularly by addressing problems in the areas of security and housing in order to accelerate return and integration processes,” Ciftci wrote on X.