EU figures reveal hundreds of thousands of Turkish citizens have received European passports since 2003 – but the numbers are falling
Hundreds of thousands of Turkish passport holders have applied for European passports between 2003 and 2012
More than half a million Turkish nationals have become European citizens in the last decade, the EU has revealed.
There were 609,550 applications for citizenship of European Union countries by Turkish passport holders in the ten year period from 2003, with the vast majority applying for German citizenship.
In 2012, the most recent year for which figures are available, more people applied from Turkey than any other country apart from Morocco.
The figures were released this week by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics body.
STEADILY DROPPING
Nearly two thirds (62%) of the 53,720 Turkish applications for European citizenship in 2012 went to Germany. This was followed by 4,804 applications for a French passport, while Turkish applications for UK citizenship were the third most popular at 4,724 applications (8.79%).
There has been a steady drop in the Turkish rush for European passports since 2003, when 87,587 people applied, suggesting a dwindling
There were 4,724 Turkish nationals who acquired EU passport in 2012, adding to a total of 51,671 successful applications in the previous ten year period
But total number of applications has crept up in recent years as more Turkish citizens apply for UK and German passports.
The number of applications from Turkey for EU country passports in 2012 was the highest in five years.
BRITAIN IS MOST POPULAR
The Eurostat figures also showed Britain is granting citizenship to more migrants than any other country in the European Union.
Nearly 194,000 foreigners became British citizens in 2012. The next highest number of naturalisations was by Germany, where 114,000 passports were granted.
Politicians and campaigners seized on the figures to call for further curbs to immigration.
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of MigrationWatchUK, which campaigns for low immigration, told The Times: “Clearly Britain remains the No 1 EU destination for migrants from outside the EU. It is imperative, therefore, that we bear down on non-EU immigration while looking at ways of restricting the flow from the EU.”
Meanwhile Keith Vaz, the chairman of parliament’s Home Affairs Committee, called the figures “extraordinary”.
“To be responsible for a quarter of all new passports issued to migrants in the EU flies in the face of suggestions that settlement and migration is under control,” he said.
However, the number of Turkish citizens receiving UK passports were dwarfed by applicants from other countries. Almost one in six new UK passports went to Indians, 10% to Pakistanis and 4.6% to Nigerians.