Turkey has repatriated a total of 59 foreign Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suspects since Nov. 11, when Ankara started sending foreign extremists home from deportation centers in the country, the Turkish Interior Ministry said on Wednesday, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Speaking to reporters, ministry spokesperson İsmail Çataklı also said 369,690 Syrian refugees have so far been returned to their homeland.
Turkey has announced that it will send thousands of captured ISIL militants, mostly from Europe, back to their countries even if their citizenship was revoked.
Turkey repatriated five foreign militants to Germany on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
“Turkey is not a hotel for ISIL fighters,” Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said earlier, criticizing European countries for their reluctance to take back citizens captured and imprisoned by Turkish authorities.
Among the deported ISIL suspects were German, Danish, British, American, Dutch, French and Irish citizens, according to local media reports.
