Two Turkmen dissident bloggers have been missing since July 24, when they were reportedly released from a Turkish deportation centre, according to a press release from Human Rights Watch (HRW).

HRW called on the Turkish authorities to ensure that the bloggers, Alisher Sakhatov and Abdulla Orusov, are not returned to Turkmenistan, where, said the watchdog, “they would be at grave risk of torture and arbitrary imprisonment”.

Turkey has a growing record of taking part in transnational repression with other authoritarian regimes.

Sakhatov and Orusov had been held in deportation centres in Turkey since police arrested them on April 28.

HRW recapped how on June 13, a trial court upheld migration authority orders to deport the bloggers, but on July 14, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling temporarily suspending the deportation order and immediately notified the Turkish migration authority to comply. On July 24, the deportation centre in Edirne issued documents to release them. 

“Alisher Sakhatov and Abdulla Orusov may be in grave danger of physical harm in Türkiye or of secretly being expelled to Turkmenistan,” said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Turkish authorities should ensure a swift and effective investigation into the men’s disappearance and ensure that they are not sent to Turkmenistan, where they face serious risk of persecution.”

The investigation should not exclude the possibility that the men are being held unlawfully in Turkey by Turkmen agents or their proxies, said HRW.

In recent years, Sakhatov and Orusov have run online social media platforms on which they have openly criticised Turkmen government policies. 

“Every additional minute that Sakhatov and Orusov remain missing deepens the alarm for their lives and well-being,” Denber added. “Turkish authorities should spare no effort to find them and ensure their safety.”