Turkey deports foreigners, puts travel ban to curb terror group recruitment

Turkey deported 1,065 foreigners and placed a travel ban on 9,915 others, as part of its efforts to curb militant recruitment into neighboring Syria and Iraq, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday.

Last month, a woman suspected of ties to the recent Paris attacks entered Syria from Turkey on Jan. 8. Hayat Boumeddiene, wife of Amedy Coulibaly, who killed four hostages at a supermarket in Paris on Friday, arrived in Turkey from Madrid on Jan. 2 before fleeing to Syria.

Cavusoglu said there is recently increased cooperation and intelligence sharing between Turkey and other countries with respect to the entrance of foreign fighters through Turkey to Syria aiming to join the ranks of Islamic State militants.

Speaking in a televised interview, Cavusoglu said the Indian foreign minister was in Turkey lately and the two countries shared intelligence as reports showed that some Indian nationals in the region have joined the terrorist group.

Turkey has received criticism from the international community for not taking sufficient measures along its borders with Syria to prevent foreign fighters, a remarkable number of which originated from EU countries, from getting into Syria.

Ankara, in response, demanded increased intelligence sharing from European countries especially regarding suspected citizens who might join the IS. Enditem