Thirteen Turkmen citizens who applied for asylum in the US, from where they were recently deported under the Trump administration’s drive to expel more migrants, are reportedly being quizzed by intelligence officers in Turkmenistan to determine whether they made negative statements about their homeland while seeking refugee status.

Chronicles of Turkmenistan, a publication run by self-exiled Turkmen, on March 4 reported on the situation facing the deportees who in the first half of February were transported from the US on a flight alongside migrants from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

After landing in Ashgabat, where 40 Turkmen citizens disembarked, the aircraft continued on to Tashkent. 

Upon arrival in the Turkmen capital, all the Turkmen deportees were sent to their places of permanent residence, where they were interrogated Ministry of National Security officers.

Chronicles of Turkmenistan also reported that among the deportees were children of high-ranking regional and state-level officials. Many had formerly studied at Ukrainian universities prior to obtaining US visas and travelling on, it said.

No arrests have been reported, but all the returnees continue to be regularly summoned for questioning, the media outlet said.

Separately, authorities of the tightly controlled regime in Turkmenistan are increasingly stopping citizens from boarding international flights at the country’s main international airport, according to a report from Azatlyk, the Turkmen Service of RFE/RL. 

It said travellers claimed border officials at the Ashgabat airport were referring to vague bureaucratic reasons to refuse them permission to exit the country, with “unclear” passport stamps or unspecified migration rules sometimes cited.

Since the beginning of this year, approximately four in 10 travellers, mainly headed to Turkey or Russia on guest or tourist visas, have been denied departure, a source at the airport was reported as saying.