About 10,000 people are banned from entering Turkey as they were suspected of joining terrorist groups, Turkey’s Interior Minister Efkan Ala said Wednesday.
“We have imposed entry bans on 9,955 people from 91 countries,” Minister Ala told The Anadolu Agency, where he attended the AA Editor's Desk meeting.
He added that people’s names had been reported from different countries, as well as confirmed by Turkey.
Turkey has joined other countries to stop the flow of foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq.
According to the UN, more than 13,000 fighters from more than 80 countries have joined Daesh [ISIL] and other militant groups in Syria and Iraq.
European countries have not shown sufficient attention to the Syrian civil war, the country’s citizens and foreign fighters, Ala stated.
“While we are dealing with the flame, they are struggling for the flame’s smoke not to reach them,” he said, “If they want to solve this problem, we should put out this fire together.”
Ala said that Western countries should prevent suspected foreign fighter’s departures, while Turkey was preventing the entry of such people and deporting them back to their countries.
“They are sending them here, as well as informing us about it,” he said, adding, “Why are you sending this problem here? Anyhow we are sending them back.”
He also stated that Turkey knew about at least 700 Turks who have left to Syria to fight with terrorist organizations and that these cases were being watched.
