ASTANA -- Citizens of Kazakhstan who join the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) or other terrorist groups will lose their citizenship, said President Nursultan Nazarbayev on MIR 24 TV, according to a Tuesday (April 11) report on the channel's website.
Past methods of combating ISIL recruitment have not worked, Nazarbayev told MIR 24 in a TV interview.
"In accordance with Kazakhstani law, if a national of our country joins any extremist group [abroad], he won't be able to return home," said Nazarbayev. "He will be automatically stripped of citizenship. This move is necessary."
"Out of Kazakhstan, about 500 to 600 people have joined ISIL," he added. "We tried to rehabilitate those who came back from ISIL, without result. So we decided to block them from coming home."
