Since 1937 the governor Italo Balbo started a policy of immigration of Italians (mainly farmers) who were called the "Ventimilli" and some of them settled in the area of Italian Tripoli. So, by the end of 1937, the city has 108,240 inhabitants, including 39,096 Italians. At the start of WWII Italian Tripoli had 111,124 inhabitants of which the Italians were 41,304: 37% of the city's inhabitants. Additionally there were nearly 18,000 Jews in the Tripoli area.