The potential return of radicalized foreign fighters to Europe has been in the spotlight, on and off, for several years now, but the debates have lately intensified over whether to let extremists back in or not
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st February, 2019) The potential return of radicalized foreign fighters to Europe has been in the spotlight, on and off, for several years now, but the debates have lately intensified over whether to let extremists back in or not.
The Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia), which at one point controlled vast swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, is now clinging to a tiny patch of territory near the village of Baghuz in eastern Syria. US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are advancing upon what most likely is the last enclave of the IS.
As the IS was defending its last stronghold, US President Donald Trump asked Europe to "take back over 800 Isis [IS] fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial.
Some European countries have been reluctant to take back in people who joined terrorists, even if they were not actively involved in military operations.
UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid decided to revoke citizenship of Shamima Begum, the teenager who left London in 2015 to join the IS abroad. Currently in a refugee camp in Syria, Begum has reportedly found the decision "unjust." She claims she was not a fighter.
Javid, however, has stressed that joining terrorists must have consequences. The UK authorities have made it clear that the country's troops would not be sent to retrieve any of the British nationals that had left to join the IS.
Swiss Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter spoke out earlier this week against the return of Swiss citizens who went to Syria and Iraq to fight for the IS. According to Keller-Sutter, their return would put Swiss citizens in danger.
Gilles Lebreton, a French member of the European Parliament believes that the wives of fighters should take responsibility for the consequences of their decisions.
"The wives of jihadists have taken their responsibilities and should assume them: we do not want them anymore in France, they are accomplices of terrorists. As a result, their children are destined to stay with them. Only isolated children must be allowed to return to France," Lebreton told Sputnik.
Former Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken is opposed to the repatriation of foreign fighters, suggesting that those who have dual citizenship should be stripped of the Belgian one. However, he believes that the repatriation of women and young children is possible.
"For the under-age children and their mothers of course, it is different. They can be repatriated and the situation of the mothers should be looked at case by case, most of them deserving a prison sentence, here in Belgium. They will need a deradicalization accompaniment," Francken told Sputnik.
Germany has indicated it might take its citizens captured in Syria back if they have consular access.
Dr. Alice Weidel, the leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Bundestag, believes that these fighters would be a threat to the Germans.
"[The person] who joined the Islamic State, no longer has any claim to the application of the rule of law," Weidel said.
Aldo Carcaci, a member of the Belgian parliament, is concerned over the challenges posed by potential deradicalization of foreign fighters.
"Even if they are imprisoned upon their return and tried, how many years will they get? Would ten years be enough to deradicalize them? We see that most of the Islamists radicalize in prison, whatever is done to separate them from the rest of the inmates," Carcaci told Sputnik.
Laurent Dery, a representative of CGSP trade union, pointed out that prison staff had complained about the difficulty of working with Islamists.
"These people have very long prison sentences, most of them, and feel they have nothing to lose. We have of course imams who have been vetted to participate in a deradicalization program, re-explaining the Koran to them, but our wardens have great doubt that it will have any effect on their attitude to the Western society," Dery told Sputnik.
The key goal is to "educate and re-educate the youngsters," the union representative argued.
'There is some hope there, of being successful with deradicalization policies," Dery said.
Corinne Torrekens, a sociologist at the University of Brussels who studies radicalization, explains that some projects have already been successful.
"'We love Bxl' and similar projects must be considered as prevention projects, before youngsters get radicalized, out of a boring life without a job. The one-year test-experiment has been successful," Torrekens told Sputnik.
The team identified young people who wanted to break away from a radical group and supported them through "actors on the ground."
"It implied contacts with the families, developing optimism in a training and job center, organizing activities and sports training for example, giving them pride in what they do to avoid community withdrawal, that slowly leads to resentment, anger and radicalization," Torrekens said.
Renee Bourlard, a social worker in Brussels, takes care of young mothers at the prison for women, who have returned from Syria with children under five.
"You have different attitudes among these young women who have seen the horrors of war in Syria, from the IS side: some have perfectly understood their error, in Syria already and have cried a lot, hoping to be allowed back to Belgium. They usually have a mother here, who is relatively young herself and can help tackle the children's needs for a family, to forget the horrors they have seen," Bourlard told Sputnik.
On the other hand, some women do not have such regrets, Bourlard continued.
"They simply want to remain close to their children, but shut up completely as soon as you touch on the religious issue or their continued support for IS. Are they dangerous? Difficult to say. Each is an individual case. The family is very important for their deradicalization," the social worker said.
The Soufan Center nonprofit estimated in late 2017 that as many as 5,778 people had left Western Europe to fight for the IS. As of April 2016, about 5,000 people from the European Union had gone to Syria or Iraq, about 1,200 had returned, with 2,200 still fighting.
Of EU countries, France had the highest number of such recruits; as of August 2017, about 1,910 had left the country. There were estimated 850 foreign fighters from the United Kingdom, about 528 from Belgium, roughly 70 from Switzerland.
