Radicalisation Risks Make States Unwilling to Repatriate Fighters - Researcher

© AFP 2023 / Mohamed al-Bakour Syrian northwestern city of Idlib.
Syrian northwestern city of Idlib. - Sputnik International
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The United States has urged other nations to repatriate and prosecute the nationals who fought for Daesh.* Sputnik discussed the issue with Dr. Clarke Jones, Director of the Australian Intervention Support Hub and terrorism and radicalisation expert.

Sputnik: Few countries are willing to repatriate terrorist fighters. What happens to them is they are not repatriated? I suppose that's an interesting question.

Clarke Jones: If we can use Australia as a case study, Australia has now stripped citizenship from I think about eight foreign fighters, which means those who are on dual-citizenship haven't been allowed to return to the country, to Australia.

READ MORE: US Urges Allies to Take Back Daesh Terrorists Captured by Kurds in Syria

So, if you're getting country responses like that, we've got a real problem; you've got people who are literally stateless or people that have nowhere else to go. And if they're released, or if we're not going to do anything when they get out of prison, we'll be back to where we started from, in relation to terrorists or foreign fighters being at large.

Sputnik: It's very interesting that you're saying that. What about the terrorists' spouses and children, if they're living in a country like Australia, for example? What fate awaits them?

Syria. Terrorist-controlled eastern Aleppo districts as seen from the city's Citadel. - Sputnik International
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Clarke Jones: That's a real tragedy. I mean, I think there's been a number of cases where we've tried to get children back into Australia; the government has been very resistant. There's this sort of notion that children as young as 15 or even younger, 10, 11 or 12, are somehow radicalised by being over in Syria; and I think that it's quite regrettable that certain countries, including Australia, are not taking responsibility and trying to get the wives and the children back into the country.

If they're not going to do this, you can understand countries being very reluctant to let the foreign fighters back in, who knows what's happened in relation to their state of radicalisation or mental health, their military training.

I can understand why countries are reluctant. But certainly with women and children, countries need to be taking more of an effort to try and bring them back home.

Sputnik: What about the general question that surrounds this subject matter? Why is there such little will to repatriate these fighters once these conflicts have finished? What dangers do they pose? I mean, there's an obvious answer to that — these fighters can then go to other locations; but the main question is why there is little will to repatriate these people.

Clarke Jones: I think it's the threat or the risk of them coming back. They've experienced all sorts of atrocities, they've been involved in all sorts of military combat, they've got lots of experience; if they're still radicalised or they're still deemed a terrorist threat, that's, obviously, a concern for governments and they don't really want them back here.

Flag of the Islamic State in the conflict zone - Sputnik International
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The other thing is that it can be a legal problem if they can't charge them effectively and if they can't prove that they've been involved in a combat zone or have fought against allied forces overseas, and they can't prove a case on them, then they have to set them free.

There are all sorts of legal challenges and at the end of the day, it comes down to that sort of risk or threat and countries are just not willing to take a chance. The other aspect of this is there aren't any really credible deradicalisation programmes; and I think there's a lot more work that needs to be done in relation to rehabilitation and intervention.

READ MORE: US-Backed SDF Reportedly Deny Rumours Daesh Leader Baghdadi Was Seized in Syria

If they're brought back into a country, then what programmes are there to deal with them? I don't think we are there yet; I don't think we've done enough to develop those programmes or work with the right communities to try and help these people or these foreign fighters coming back into a country.

Sputnik: I think that's probably a relatively new phenomenon, isn't it? It's only since the early 2000's; it's not something countries have come across and like you say, they've still got to set programmes and legislature and strategies in place if they're going to incorporate the people in this particular situation. You mentioned two or three very good things in terms of advice and recommendations to countries and governments; are there any other elements of this that you would like to see countries embrace to assist this particular repatriation and have it be more seamless?

Clarke Jones: There are two areas here. If you can lay charges on these foreign fighters and they're prosecuted according to the criminal justice system and then put into prison, then there are rehabilitation programmes that go around in prison. But a lot of countries are trying to do this indefinite sentencing, so they're left inside prisons.

(File) Indian Border Security Force soldiers patrol at Champakgachh village, on the India-Bangladesh border, about 12 kilometers (7 miles) from Siliguri, India, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011 - Sputnik International
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Those that cannot lay charges and there're not any adequate rehabilitation or deradicalisation programmes in the communities from where they came, then we're also in a problem. I don't want to talk about any self-promotion here, but we've just released a book on prison radicalisation and we've done ten years of work primarily in the Philippines, but we've looked at other countries. In that book we don't have a lot of confidence in the way these foreign fighters or terrorists are treated inside prison.

And we've got to do a lot more about developing appropriate rehabilitation programmes and I think that many countries are not there yet; so, I can understand why governments are reluctant to bring the foreign fighters home again.

Views and opinions, expressed in the article are solely those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik

*Daesh is a terrorist association banned in Russia

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