The key facts
- On October 23, about a hundred girls were detained in Turkey, including 34 Russian citizens
- Relatives name the employer's failure to renew work visas as the cause of the problems
- The embassy confirmed that the Russian women are at the Akyurt deportation center
Detention in Ankara clubs and possible deportation
More than 30 Russian dancers detained during police raids on nightclubs in Turkey may be deported home as soon as in a week. This is reported by SHOT, citing the girls' relatives, who link what happened to the employer's failure to renew their work visas. The outlet Life.ru published a report on this.
What is known about the detainees
The mass detentions took place on October 23 during police inspections at the Havana, Maxim and Foliberjer nightclubs. In total, according to SHOT, law enforcement detained about a hundred girls, including 34 Russian citizens. Turkish authorities suspect them of violating public order and morality standards. The Russian embassy confirmed that the Russian women are being held at the Akyurt deportation center; a lawyer is working with the detainees.
Relatives' statements
Among the detained Russian women were 27-year-old Yevgenia from Novosibirsk and 25-year-old Yekaterina from Irkutsk, both of whom worked at the Foliberjer club in Ankara. Yevgenia's mother told journalists that the day before she spoke with her daughter over a landline phone: the girl is in a migration center, where conditions, according to her, are better than in a police station, she is fed properly, but she cannot use her own mobile phone. The woman rejected suggestions of her daughter's unlawful activity: 'There are no drugs or prostitution there, and there never were. All this happened now because their boss did not renew the work visa.' According to her, Yevgenia had gone to Turkey to earn money for the third time, each time a six-month contract was signed, and the dancers were escorted to and from their workplace by security guards.
What remains unknown
According to the publication, the embassy will check the conditions in which the detainees are held. The sources do not provide any official position of the Turkish authorities on the deportation timeline or the girls' final status; the relatives' claim about the employer's failure to renew the visas remains their assertion, not a conclusion confirmed by the investigation.
