Former fighters of the Islamic State are a ticking time bomb for the West

The latent danger of thousands of defeated and captured fighters who have joined the Islamic State (ISIL) is becoming increasingly serious in the dirty and overcrowded prison camps in northeastern Syria, where rebellions and escape attempts are already a common occurrence, writes the BBC.

IS has promised to release them, along with their wives and family members, and a network of people smugglers is reportedly being formed, which secures secret releases from prison with bribes.

This issue has been brought up again after the recent ruling by the British Court of Appeal that former schoolgirl Shamima Begum, who was born in the United Kingdom but stripped of her citizenship, can return to the country to face trial there. The public has also become interested in the problem since an Islamic State fighter of British origin died in a Kurdish prison.

When IS lost the last part of its self-proclaimed caliphate in Baghuz (Syria) in March 2019, thousands of surviving members were surrounded and detained indefinitely in camps controlled by the Syrian Kurds they were fighting.

According to critics, this is unfinished business that threatens to develop into a new global security problem, the BBC warns.

Research published recently by the Department of Defense at King's College London warns that Islamic State fighters who escape from prison are regrouping in other parts of the world, and that there is a risk of the re-formation of ISIL.

"If we are truly committed to defeating ISIL, that doesn't mean we should pack up after we're done with airstrikes," said Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the British parliamentary defense committee. "There are tens of thousands of extremists, family members of hard-liners and other ISIL regulars who remain in Iraq and Syria. And we have to decide whether we're determined to make sure we defeat ISIL completely, or whether that ideology will live on as they have a chance to regroup."

Captured children

Around 40.000 jihadists are thought to have fled Syria and joined the Islamic State between 2014 and 2019. Estimates put the number of so-called foreign terrorist fighters who have survived - whether in prison or at large - between 10 and 20.

A number of them have been prosecuted in courts in neighboring Iraq, but most are languishing in camps that the fugitive Islamic State leadership has promised to liberate. There are also women among them, whom they call "honorable women" or "brides of the caliphate".

Earlier this year, the United Nations estimated that there were around 8.000 children of captured fighters in Kurdish camps.

It is believed that of that number, over 700 children were born in Europe, in countries that until now did not want to take them back.

Female executors

Anne Spekhard heads the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism. In the last three years, she interviewed more than 200 jihadists and their family members.

She also visited camps in northeastern Syria, which she says have terrible conditions and an escape attempt every Sunday.

According to her, many detained women have renounced ISIL, but live in constant fear of reprisals.

"There are ISIS executioners in the camps," she told the BBC. "These are women who kill other women. They set fire to their tents, stone them and teach children to stone them." So does this mean that all persons associated with ISIL fighters who are imprisoned in the camps are hard-line jihadists? No. Many have secretly turned their backs on extremist ideology, but live in fear of fanatical female executioners. During the so-called caliphate, these female executioners belonged to the Hisbah, a notorious female religious police that carried out harsh punishments. Today, despite being behind wire in the camps, they successfully play the same role, according to the BBC.

"Part of our research project involved asking women to tell their stories and open up to us," says Spekhard. "However, they are terrified and fear that they will be punished. Therefore, children grow up in fear, with the trauma of life in the Islamic State and the trauma of being in this camp." Calculations

In general, there are three aspects to the issue of surviving Islamic State jihadists: legal, humanitarian and security.

From a legal point of view, it is indefensible to leave thousands of people - especially children - abandoned in limbo in these camps without any trial in sight.

Many jihadists, either fighters or those associated with them, say they are ready to return home and face justice, even to serve prison terms. The problem is that governments in the West are afraid to send them home - a very unpopular measure there. And in case there is not enough evidence for a conviction, the authorities are obliged to let them live freely among the local population.

They also worry about the effect an influx of hard-line, radical jihadists who have spent years fighting in Syria and Iraq could have on already overcrowded prisons. On the humanitarian side, there is increasing criticism from aid agencies and other organizations about poor conditions and overcrowded prison camps. Again, there is little public sympathy anywhere in the world for death cult followers who have inflicted horrific torture and cruelty on many people, including enslaving and raping girls as young as nine.

And finally, there is the security aspect, notes the BBC. It is up to governments to decide which is more dangerous: bringing their citizens home to stand trial or leaving them where they are.

So far, more than 400 Britons have returned from the Syrian battlefields to the UK and do not pose a major security challenge.

However, these are mostly people who went there at the beginning of the uprising in Syria. Today, the British intelligence agency MI5 and the police fear that some of those trapped in the camps are more radicalized because they have been exposed to extreme violence for years.

And Ekaterina Sokirianskaya, director of the Center for Analysis and Prevention of Conflicts from St. Petersburg, presented her warnings to the BBC.

"We're not even just talking about this from a humanitarian point of view. The problem must absolutely be faced in order to avoid even more ultra-radical jihadist movements in the future because we are talking about growing up in extremely radicalized conditions in the camps."

The British Home Office says it would like to see those suspected of crimes in Iraq and Syria prosecuted.

What next?

However, is it possible to single out people associated with ISIL fighters and bring them home, while leaving the male fighters to face justice? Ann Spekhard thinks so.

"Many women, if they are successfully prosecuted, would get a suspended sentence. But even if they go to prison, at least the children could visit them there. They wouldn't be stuck in Syria and they wouldn't be in danger," she commented to the BBC. "So the best thing that can be done is to bring the children back together with their mothers. Or, if that is not possible, at least get the children to safety."

In any case, it is clear that the current situation cannot last indefinitely. The Syrian Kurds, who fought against ISIL and now control the camps, have their own problems.

President Donald Trump's decision to partially withdraw US special forces has left them exposed to attacks by Turkish forces.

The position of the Kurds regarding all these prisoners from Europe is clear: "They came from your countries." We cannot store them for you much longer. You should take them back.''

Putin welcomes women and children back

One of the countries that has made efforts to accept back its citizens linked to ISIL fighters is Russia, from where a large number of jihadists have joined groups from the troubled North Caucasus region.

"(Russian President) Vladimir Putin supported the idea of ​​accepting women and children," Ekaterina Sokirianskaya, director of the Center for Analysis and Prevention of Conflicts, told the BBC. "He made it clear that children are not responsible for the actions of their parents and that Russia cannot leave them in a war zone."

The hypocrisy of Europe

The West lost much of its moral authority in the Middle East after 2001 when the United States transferred hundreds of suspects to the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba where they were held without trial.

European countries, which themselves condemned the practices at Guantanamo Bay, only to now ignore the problem of their abandoned citizens simply because it is too complicated, are now free to be accused of hypocrisy.