Amid Turkey’s mounting economic crisis, animosity is growing toward the country’s millions of refugees.

Tensions are threatening to boil over in recent weeks.

Thousands of citizens have taken to social media to voice their outrage and urge for refugees to be sent back to their countries after seeing videos of big gatherings of foreign nationalities hanging around in various parts of Istanbul.

As inflation rises and the value of the lira falls, some Turks blame Syrians of “taking” their employment and being responsible for soaring rental rates.

According to polls, the vast majority of Turkish residents now want refugees deported.

Analysts say that politicians are increasingly seizing on this hostility and exploiting it for political gain ahead of the June 2023 legislative and presidential elections in Turkey.

Turkey is home to more than four million refugees, 3.76 million of them are Syrians, according to current Interior Ministry estimates.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees live in the country.

Umit Ozdag, a former member of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the AK Party’s current coalition partner, is one of these critics.

The party’s popularity has developed under the slogan “Victory will come to power, all refugees and illegals will go.”

They say – without evidence – that over eight million refugees are currently residing in Turkey, accounting for almost 10% of the country’s population.

“[Refugees] can return to their countries when they wish, but we will not kick them out,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Previously, Erdogan stated they were prepared for the voluntary return of one million Syrians and promised to build 200,000 homes in northern Syria to help them.