Germany’s Left Party (Die Linke) said on Wednesday that Turkish police had detained a delegation of 16 German activists and journalists in southeastern Turkey who had traveled to the region in solidarity with Syrian Kurds, calling for their immediate release. Among the detainees, according to the Left Party, is a representative of Linksjugend Solid, its youth wing, as well as a member of the party’s organization in the German state of Lower Saxony. The Left Party also condemned Turkish authorities for stopping a civil society convoy known as the “People’s Caravan” at the border and preventing it from entering the area. According to an August report by the German newspaper Tagesspiegel, citing a German government response to a parliamentary question from Left Party lawmaker Gökay Akbulut, 144 German citizens are currently either imprisoned in Turkey or barred from leaving the country. The Foreign Ministry said the figure includes 75 Germans held in Turkish prisons, most facing charges related to violent, drug or sexual offenses.