How a young Kurdish man is fighting his deportation

Mirac Isik (26), a refugee, lived in Zug for three years. He is now waiting in Zurich to be deported to Turkey, where, as a Kurdish activist, he fears the worst. His story is not an isolated case.
 

With a mechanical clatter, the gate opens just wide enough for a person to pass through. It leads to the forecourt of the prison, which bears the unwieldy name ‘Centre for Administrative Detention of Foreigners’, or ZAA (Zentrum für ausländerrechtliche Administrativhaft) for short. A few hundred metres to the north, aeroplanes take off and land on the runways of Kloten Airport.

Two doors lead into the small visiting room. Mirac Isik enters through the one for prisoners. The 26-year-old looks thinner than in the photos his Swiss friends have shared on the ‘free.mirac’ Instagram profile. His hand feels cold and weak, his smile seems forced.

The young man is waiting in the ZAA to be deported back to his home country, Turkey. An unbearable thought for him: as a political activist, he fears the Turkish authorities. His case raises the question of why Switzerland continues to deport Turkish Kurds – despite their documented arrests after their return.

Arrest warrant for political activism
Members of the Kurdish people -  the world's largest group of stateless persons – are allowed to cultivate their own cultures and languages in Turkey, but are often subjected to repression and discrimination. As Mirac Isik explains, his family is involved in the fight for Kurdish rights in Turkey, where his brother has already been sentenced to nine years in prison for political activism.

Mirac Isik is also the subject of an arrest warrant in Turkey, as shown by a court document he sent to the Zuger Zeitung newspaper. It is an information letter regarding the postponement of the ongoing proceedings. The offence he is charged with is not specified in the document, however. According to Mirac Isik, he is accused of insulting the president and spreading terrorist propaganda.

During his studies, Mirac Isik was continuously subjected to repression by fellow students and police harassment because of his Kurdish identity and political activism. He therefore fled Turkey and, immediately after entering Switzerland in July 2022, applied for asylum. After the admission process at the Federal Asylum Centre (Bundesasylzentrum), he was assigned to the canton of Zug, where he lived in asylum accommodation in the old cantonal hospital.

The SEM bases its decision on a landmark ruling by the Federal Administrative Court
In February 2025, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) rejected Mirac Isik's asylum application. It ruled that he had not provided credible evidence of relevant persecution in his country of origin. He must now leave Switzerland and is certain that he will be sent straight back to the legal machinery of the Turkish state apparatus. There he will face imprisonment, torture and ill-treatment.

Mirac Isik is currently being held in Zurich Airport Prison         Photo: Watson
There is a campaign to free Mirac Isik                      Instagram free-Mirac

 

Mirac Isik is afraid. He is afraid of the fate that could await him in his home country, of the arbitrariness and cruelty of which he accuses the Turkish authorities. This fear is not unfounded, as research by ‘SRF Investigativ’ shows. His case is representative of several similar stories regarding Swiss asylum practice. In recent months, Swiss Refugee Aid (SFH: Schweizerische Flüchtlingshilfe) and the Democratic Lawyers in Switzerland organisation (Demokratische Jurist:innen Schweiz) have compiled at least twelve cases in which the affected persons have been arrested and detained after entering Turkey. In mid-October, the two organisations sent a letter to the SEM calling on it to ‘temporarily stop sending rejected asylum seekers back to Turkey, and to review its practice’.

In response to an enquiry from the Zuger Zeitung newspaper, the SEM wrote that it was ‘bound by the case law of the Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht)’ and had to ‘implement this in its decision-making practice’. The authority refers to a landmark ruling of 8th November 2024. In summary, this ruling states that investigations for insulting the president or terrorist propaganda in Turkey are generally not sufficient to assume a relevant risk of persecution – even where there is an arrest warrant or a summons. The SEM examines ‘on a case-by-case basis whether there are serious indications of treatment contrary to international law in the event of a return’. It is not for the authority to publicly assess the rule of law in Turkey.

Figures are unreliable
‘The SEM's practice does not reflect the reality of criminal proceedings in Turkey,’ says Basel lawyer Guido Ehrler. He recently took on the Mirac Isik case.

Guido Ehrler criticises the SEM's asylum procedures, saying that the landmark decision of November 2024 follows a logic that states that the risk of actual imprisonment – for example, on charges of insulting the president – is statistically too low to avert a negative asylum decision. ‘However, this probability calculation is based on figures that are hardly comprehensible and are implausible,’ says Ehrler.

He continues: ‘There are many cases in Turkey of people who have served their sentences for insulting the president or violating the anti-terrorism law, but have not yet been released from prison.’ In addition, fewer and fewer lawyers are willing to defend the rights of these people, because doing so often puts them in the crosshairs of the Turkish law enforcement authorities. All of this serves as a deterrent tactic by the government against opposition figures.

He is not leaving Switzerland voluntarily
Mirac Isik appealed against the SEM's negative decision, but the Federal Administrative Court decided not to hear the case. He was ordered to leave the country by the end of June 2025. Isik subsequently fled to Basel. After about three months, he was picked up by the police there and had to appear before the Zug Administrative Court (Zuger Verwaltungsgericht) at the beginning of October – in shackles. This is something that clearly upsets the 26-year-old deeply, and he kept mentioning it in the ZAA visitors' room. He can't understand why he was treated like a violent criminal, although he poses no danger whatsoever.

The Zug Administrative Court confirmed a three-month detention order at the ZAA issued by the Zug Migration Office. As the Migration Office writes in response to an enquiry from the Zuger Zeitung newspaper, such a measure is only permissible if it is proportionate and appropriate, as it constitutes ‘a serious encroachment on the personal freedom of the person concerned’. If a person's behaviour suggests that they wish to evade deportation, ‘the enforcement of the removal order is usually ensured by means of detention pending deportation’. In Mirac Isik's case, this is primarily justified by his disappearance in Basel.

Mirac Isik's detention pending deportation was due to end on 1st January 2026. But this did not happen. At the hearing in early October, Mirac Isik stated that he would not leave Switzerland voluntarily, in view of what he would face on his return to Turkey.

In mid-December 2025, the Zug Administrative Court confirmed an extension of detention pending deportation requested by the Zug Migration Office. As Mirac Isik would not leave Switzerland voluntarily and, according to his own statements, would prefer suicide to returning to Turkey, deportation with police and medical escort was planned.

Similar statements were made by the Kurdish asylum seeker who was found dead in Lake Zug on 6th January 2026 (we reported at the time). His friends from the asylum accommodation told the Turkish news portal 41 Media that the man had said things like: ‘If I don't get a residence permit, my body will go to Turkey.’ In this context, the SP parliamentary group has submitted an interpellation with questions about mental health care for refugees in the canton of Zug.

According to his doctor, Isik is unfit to travel
Mirac Isik is receiving support from Swiss friends. They were the ones who were able to persuade lawyer Guido Ehrler to take on his case. He recently submitted a request for reconsideration to the SEM: the authority should overturn the negative decision of February 2025 and grant Mirac Isik asylum. Among other things, the lawyer accuses the SEM of dismissing the documents submitted by Mirac Isik as forgeries, without any examination.

Furthermore, Mirac Isik's health has deteriorated significantly in recent months. Back in May 2025, a psychiatrist in Zug diagnosed him with severe depression and acute suicidal tendencies (the Zuger Zeitung newspaper has seen the corresponding report). In addition, a doctor wrote a letter to the Zug Migration Office stating that Mirac Isik urgently needed further medical examination due to his physical and mental condition, and was currently unfit to travel. The young man currently weighs just over 50 kilograms. The SEM has not informed the Zuger Zeitung newspaper when it will reach a decision on the matter.

Every few minutes, aeroplanes take off into the grey sky above the prison. The gate closes with a clatter. Somewhere behind it, Mirac Isik waits for the decision on how and where his life will continue.