Turkey wants to send Jihadi Jack back to the UK

Among thousands of captured Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) fighters is the known terrorist "Jihadi Jack" (Jack Letts). It is estimated that some 10,000 international ISIS fighters are currently in north Syrian prisons. The Turkish government is unwilling to keep European ISIS fighters in Turkish controlled prisons and Jihadi Jack may be one of the European prisoners being returned to their country.

At the age of 18, British-Canadian Jack Letts left the United Kingdom to convert to Islam and join the ISIS forces. Since his capture by Kurdish forces, Letts has shown no remorse for having left his home in Oxford to join the terror organisation.

Even though Letts does not seem to have any hope that the British government will allow him to return to the UK, his family has not given up hope. Mother, Sally Lane, and father, John Letts, have been trying to get the Red Cross to give them more information about the prison where their son is being held. According to The Sun, the Red Cross cannot share the information as it would jeopardise their access to the prisons.

However, it seems that the Letts family may soon be reunited with their son despite the fact that Ex-Home Secretary Sajid Javid ensured that the estimated 60 British ISIS fighters will unable to return to the UK by stripping them of their citizenship. Similar actions by other European countries have left nearly 10,000 European ISIS members in Turkish run prisons.

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has pushed for European countries to take in prisoners who used to be their citizens. Echoing Trump's stance, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to deport the European prisoners.

However, the Independent pointed out German foreign minister Heiko Maas' statement. According to Maas, the task of determining which country the prisoner belongs to is not simple. In the absence of established European Embassies in the area, it is impossible to correctly judge the nationality of the prisoners.

In the case of Letts, his father is Canadian and his mother is British. Both countries have refused to accept Letts as a citizen. Hence it raises the question of which country should Letts be deported to if Erdogan is to start deporting prisoners.