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Returning ISIS fighters: How should governments deal with them?
- With the caliphate collapsing and foreign fighters returning home, governments such as the UK are enacting laws to deprive dual nationals of citizenship, though international law prohibiting statelessness likely ensures most British fighters will eventually return.
- Authorities aim to prosecute returnees for atrocities through due process, resulting in incarceration to demonstrate a tough stance, despite warnings from an official inspector that prisons currently function as uncontrolled jihadist training grounds due to radicalization.
- While ISIS may step up global terrorist attacks despite its ground defeat, recruiters are expected to continue targeting individuals motivated by noble ideals or feeling alienated and unhappy with their situations.
- Rehabilitation models, such as Denmark's attempt to reintegrate former fighters to reduce alienation, face criticism for a lack of hard evidence regarding their efficacy and significant political difficulty in Western European nations.
- Surveillance of returning individuals is deemed essential given that a small number of determined actors can commit atrocities, yet long-term monitoring of even single individuals requires substantial manpower and forces difficult decisions regarding resource allocation.