Turkey continues to repatriate foreign ISIS fighters, sending back 2 Dutch nationals

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – As part of its promise to repatriate foreign Islamic State members in its custody, Turkey deported two Dutch nationals to the Netherlands on Tuesday.

Dutch prosecutors said two women with alleged ties to the terror group were arrested upon their arrival at Amsterdam Schipol Airport. The women were traveling with two children, aged 3 and 4. They will face trial on Friday, the prosecutors added.

Turkey began to repatriate foreign Islamic State members in its detention last week, starting with a US national, a Danish citizen, and a German.

Two Irish, two more Danish, and 11 French citizens are also set to be deported later this month, Interior Ministry spokesperson Ismail Catakli told state-run Anadolu Agency last week.

The identity of the suspects has not been revealed.

Related Article: Turkey starts repatriation of foreign ISIS fighters, beginning with American

Earlier this month, Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu warned that Ankara would return foreign Islamic State detainees to their native countries, even if their citizenship had been revoked.

According to Soylu, Turkey currently has around 1,200 foreign Islamic State members in its prisons, including relatives of the suspects.

“We are not a hotel” for any country’s Islamic State members, he said at the time.

On Tuesday, Soylu reiterated Turkey’s stance and said Ankara would return “a large part” of the foreign fighters to their home countries by the end of the year.

“They do not have the right to leave their citizens without a nationality. They have no such right,” the interior minister said, referring to European nations who have stripped their nationals of citizenship for joining the Islamic State.

“This is why we held evaluations with certain countries on this, and they are taking them back.”