PM Shtayyeh demands intensified search for Palestinians missing in Turkey

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh expressed concern to the ambassador to Turkey over the unexplained disappearance of seven Palestinians in the country.

Shtayyeh's office on Tuesday evening called the Palestinian ambassador to Turkey, Fayed Mustafa, to inquire about the missing Palestinians after efforts to contact them had failed.

He asked the embassy in Ankara to intensify their search efforts to deliver updates on their whereabouts and the cause of their disappearance, according to a statement carried by Palestinian Authority's news agency Wafa.

Four of the Palestinians are said to have disappeared while in Istanbul, one went missing in the city of Konya, and a sixth on the Turkish-Greek border, the ministry said in a statement Sunday evening.

A seventh Palestinian was later recorded as missing.

The Palestinian embassy in Ankara and consulate general in Istanbul have formed a crisis cell to follow up on the matter and uncover their whereabouts in coordination with Turkish authorities.

A Palestinian refugee went missing for several weeks in Turkey's Izmir earlier this year and is one of the hundreds who have been reported missing in the country over the years.

Many of these Palestinians fled Syria following the outbreak of war there in 2011.