By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post. (Photo: Michael Jerrard/Unspalsh)
Turkey has been deporting hundreds of foreign Christians and blocking their return by labeling them national security threats, according to an international legal advocacy group.
ADF International Legal Officer Lidia Rieder told a gathering of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw, Poland, on Monday that such designations are issued through internal security codes and have left local Protestant communities without leadership.
Since 2020, at least 200 foreign Christian workers and their families, totaling around 350 people, have been barred from the country under internal security codes N-82 and G-87, ADF International reports.
The codes are used by the Ministry of Interior to prevent re-entry or deny residence permits, often without charges or evidence of criminal wrongdoing, the group said.
Foreign Christians from countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, Latin America and other parts of Europe have been denied visas or deported in recent years. Many had lived in Turkey with their families for extended periods and had no criminal record or pending legal cases, the Protestant association said.
A June 8 ruling from Turkey’s Constitutional Court rejected an appeal by nine foreign Christians against the N-82 code. The court published their names, prompting media outlets to label them as missionaries and enemies of the state. The report noted that many online comments called for the death penalty and described killing them as a religious duty.
Between December 2024 and January 2025 alone, at least 35 new codes were assigned, including to people who had lived in the country for decades.