Lawyer: Fatih Keskin has been declared a threat to national security

Fatih Keskin

Richmond Park Schools principal Fatih Keskin, a Turkish citizen who lived in Bosnia for the past 20 years, has been taken to the immigration centre of the Service for Foreigner’s Affairs and was declared a threat to national security, Senka Nozica, from Keskin’s legal team, told N1 on Thursday.

“Fatih Keskin is currently at the immigration centre of the Service for Foreigner’s Affairs. He has been declared a threat to the national security and lawyers were not told why, since information is kept secret in such cases,” Nozica said.

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Keskin was taken away after speaking to police in the northwestern Una-Sana Canton on Tuesday. According to Richmond Park Schools, he was not allowed to contact his attorney and the next time his family heard from him, he reportedly said he was in the migrant detention centre in Lukavica, near Sarajevo.

Nozica said Keskin was handed two documents as he entered the immigration centre – one saying that he is being put under supervision, which his lawyers appealed, and another one saying that he is being stripped of his right to permanently reside in the country.

Keskin’s legal team is now asking how someone who lived and worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina the past two decades could become a threat to the state overnight?

Nozica said that although Bosnia’s Court handed down rulings in similar cases before, this one is different because of Keskin’s classification as a security threat. She said the lawyers have come across unofficial information that authorities are preparing to deport him.

Keskin's lawyers fear that this could be a new practice for getting rid of “undesirable” Turkish citizens.

They have since Wednesday contacted numerous international human rights organisations, saying that such activities not only breach the rights of those Turkish citizens but also upset the public.