Turkey to send 11 Daesh/ISIS members back to France

As part of Turkey’s policy of repatriating foreign Daesh/ISIS members to their home countries, 11 French national members of the terror group will be sent back to France at beginning of December, said Turkish officials on Thursday.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu made the announcement at a conference on migration in the Aegean province of Izmir.

Several European countries have resisted Turkey’s efforts to repatriate Daesh/ISIS terrorists, but Turkey has vowed to press forward.

To date 370,000 Syrian refugees who were hosted in Turkey have returned to their country, Soylu added.

Turkey hosts some 3.6 million refugees from neighboring Syria, more than any other country in the world.

Since 2016, it has conducted operations along its borders to eliminate terrorists there and also create safe conditions for the return of Syrian refugees.

Soylu also said that while 268,000 irregular migrants were held in Turkey in 2018, so far this year, some 430,000 have been held.

Since recognizing Daesh as a terror group in 2013, Turkey has been attacked by Daesh/ISIS terrorists numerous times, including 10 suicide bombings, seven bombings, and four armed attacks which killed 315 people and injured hundreds.

In response to the attacks, Turkey launched anti-terror operations at home and abroad, neutralizing 3,500 Daesh terrorists and arresting 5,500.