Bosnia and Herzegovina's Security Minister Dragan Mektic confirmed on Thursday that nine Bosnian citizens suspected of involvement in terrorist activities would be deported from Syria this weekend.

On November 29 the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency approved the repatriation of a number of persons being held in detention camps under Kurdish control in Syria after the defeat of the terrorist organisation Islamic State.

Initial information indicated that the decision referred to 24 women and children, but Mektic now confirmed that nine men would also be deported to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“These nine citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be arrested immediately on their arrival, and as far as the women and children are concerned, no one can be excluded (from suspicion) that they collaborated with the terrorists,” Mektic told a press conference in Sarajevo.

He said that the names of the persons, who are expected to be repatriated on Saturday, had been made available to the police agencies and they were now making the necessary checks. The minister did not reveal the identities of the men in question.

On the insistence of the United States, Bosnia and Herzegovina has agreed to accept Bosnian citizens who have been captured as members of Islamic State or other terror groups such as the al-Nusra Front. Their deportation has been prolonged due to the Turkish military intervention against Kurds in northern Syria.