A German and Danish national suspected of being members of the so-called Islamic State (ISIL) will be deported, a Turkish official has announced Monday as Ankara begins the repatriation of captured foreign fighters. 

Along with the European pair, an American national will also be deported on Monday, with seven more German nationals to be returned on November 14, according to the Turkish Interior Ministry spokesman Ismail Catakli. 

Turkey has criticized both the UK and the Netherlands for refusing to take back their nationals, vowing to send back ISIL fighters even if they have had their citizenship revoked, which Britain has done to a number of suspected militants. 

It was initially unclear where the deportees were being sent from, with Catakli only saying they were being held in Turkish detention centers. The spokesperson said that Turkey is determined to return "the foreign terrorist fighters to their own countries."

Süleyman Soylu, the Turkish Interior Minister, has previously said that there are 1,200 foreign ISIL fighters in Turkish prisons and that 287 members were re-captured during Turkey's military offensive into northeast Syria last month. That's far fewer than the estimated number of foreign fighters and their families reportedly in Syrian detention camps. 

A stipulation of the US's recent pull-out from northern Syria was that Turkey take control of the estimated 10,000 captured ISIL fighters and their families,  some 60,000 people. The Pentagon suspects 2,000 of that number are foreign nationals. 

Following their military action last month  against the formerly US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria, 750 ISIL-family members escaped from the Ain Issa displacement camp. 

Ever since ISIL's founding in 2014, Turkey has faced accusations that it has collaborated with the group. The claims include the allowing Turkish businesses to deal with IS to facilitating the transfer, under the observation of Turkish border guards, of weapons and explosives from Turkey to IS in Syria.  Ahead of a rapprochement between Ankara and Moscow Russian President Vladimir Putin directly accused Turkey of aiding jihadi groups, including IS and al-Qaeda.  

Ankara has consistently denied all accusations and has often come under attack from ISIL militants and other jihadi groups.