Ankara, Feb 18 (IANS): Turkey said that it has granted citizenship to 194,000 Syrians, including 84,000 children, by the end of 2021.

There are around 3.7 million Syrians under temporary protection in Turkey and have been registered by the authorities, the state-run broadcaster TRT quoted Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu as telling reporters.

"In some regions, the Syrian population accounts for over 25 per cent of the total," he said, adding that the government has put a limit on residence for immigrants in these regions, Xinhua news agency reported.

Foreigners, including Syrian immigrants, will no longer be accepted for residence in these regions, and the only exceptions are for students, cases related to healthcare and broken families, said the Minister.

Turkey has accepted millions of Syrians fleeing a civil war back home since 2011.

In many camps in southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border, immigrants were initially welcomed under an "open door" policy.

In the past three years, nearly half million Syrians have been voluntarily sent back to northern Syria controlled by the Turkish army, according to official figures.

Turkey continues to host the largest number of refugees worldwide, as the number of people forcibly displaced across the world due to conflict, violence and persecution hit record levels.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, the country currently hosts some 3.6 million registered Syrian refugees along with close to 320,000 persons of concern from other nationalities.