Nations Ponder How to Handle European Fighters Returning From Jihad

Berlin: Months after Kreshnik B. slipped over Turkey's border into Syria in 2013, convinced that it was his duty to help the people overthrow President Bashar Assad, he found himself desperate to go home.

In a lengthy confession read in a Frankfurt court, the 20-year-old, wearing a black T-shirt and hoodie, said he realized that he could "achieve absolutely nothing" in Syria.

Upon his return to Germany, he was immediately detained on suspicion of belonging to the Islamic State. He agreed to confess and provide details about his experiences in Syria in exchange for a more lenient sentence, to be handed down when his trial ends next month.

"I want to use the time in detention to either finish my vocational degree or otherwise continue my studies," the young man told the court. He is identified by only his first name and last initial because he is being tried as a juvenile after being deemed immature for his age. "After my time in detention I want, as they say, to live a totally normal life," he said.

About 3,000 Western Europeans like Kreshnik B., the son of immigrants from Kosovo, are believed to have followed the call to Syria to help defeat Assad in battle. But unlike many, he came back.

Across Europe, governments are scrambling for ways to prevent suspected radicals from leaving to join the conflict. Yet even as they seek to stem the flow outward, many find themselves struggling with how to deal with those fighters who want to return home.

Tough new legislation in several countries has expanded the authorities' ability to pursue suspected extremists, or in the case of Britain, prevent nationals from returning to their homes for up to two years.

The authorities in Britain, Germany and Belgium are allowed to detain individuals suspected of involvement in a militant organization abroad. France passed similar legislation in September, and Austria made it possible to detain someone suspected of supporting the Islamic State and other groups in Syria.

The steps have been spurred by growing fears about the havoc the returning militants may wreak on their home soil - fears stoked by an almost daily litany of reports about thwarted attacks, new arrests and jihadi propaganda.

The latest example was the video from the Islamic State announcing the beheading of Peter Kassig, an American aid worker and former Army Ranger, that included footage of several European fighters working alongside the militants.

Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Austria's interior minister, this month called the 64 people who have returned to her country from Syria "ticking time bombs." Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, in an address to the Australian Parliament, stated, "we have to deal with the threat of foreign fighters planning attacks against our people."

But security experts who have worked in counterterrorism and social workers, psychiatrists and other professionals who work with extremists warn that a blanket approach to fighters returning from Syria risks further alienation of the very populations at greatest risk of sympathizing with the jihadist cause and perpetrating the attacks that governments hope to prevent.

Ahmad Mansour, a psychologist, counsels families of people who are at risk of radicalization or have left for the jihadist cause in Syria or elsewhere, working through the Hayat program in Berlin. The Palestinian-born Mansour called European politicians' focus on the threat posed by returnees "scaremongering." He said the few fighters he had counseled were usually severely traumatized or had rejected the ideals of the extremist groups they left behind.


The climate of alarm surrounding returnees means that their families, who are often the first to learn of a fighter's return, hesitate to inform the police for fear of the repercussions.

Consequently, the police are unable to monitor such returnees. The returnees also may face obstacles to rejoining wider society, increasing the risk of alienation that could lead to further radical activity.

"The biggest mistake that political leaders make is thinking that they can just get rid of these young people and that will be good for us," Mansour said.


Kreshnik B. was disappointed within months of arriving in Syria in July 2013, he said in his court statement. He arrived brimming with energy, and by the fall was with the Islamic State, the militant group also known as ISIS or ISIL, in Hama, he told the court.

The Islamic State allowed only Europeans with previous military experience on the front lines, while Kreshnik B. and recruits like him were left bringing up the rear. "The time moved very slowly," he said. "Really nothing happened; it was boring."

Kreshnik B. said he had painted a "more heroic" picture to his sister, Aferdita, because, "I was not particularly proud that I always had to stand far away from the battle."

She remained unimpressed, repeatedly urging him to return and once screaming at him, "None of these people love you as your mother and your father," according to evidence submitted to the court.

By the end of the year, the Islamic State was battling other groups trying to topple Assad, adding to Kreshnik B.'s frustration. He wanted to leave.

Knowing that his family would support his return was critical to his decision, he said. The family also provided him with the excuse he needed to persuade his commanders to let him leave, promising that he would return.

"But that wasn't true," he explained in his written confession. "I did not want to admit to them that they were wrong in many things, so I acted as if I wanted to come back to Syria."

One complication that the authorities face is figuring out who truly wants to come home to resume Western life and who has come back to raise funds or round up new recruits - or worse.

German security officials say that at least some of the 130 returnees here have come only to rest, and that most of those returnees are eager to get back to the battlefield.

In Britain, William Hague, the former foreign secretary, recently joined calls to give greater consideration to rehabilitation for returning fighters. Those with "good intentions" should be offered support in exchange for working with the authorities to prevent others from turning toward radical Islam, he told the television channel BBC One.

Disillusioned returnees should be approached as a resource and not a threat, said Richard Barrett, a former British intelligence officer who now works for Soufan Group security consultants in New York.

He said he believes there are more disillusioned fighters than is widely known, because many are reluctant to come forward in the current climate.

Barrett points to lessons learned from veterans of the Vietnam War and the conflict in Afghanistan in the late 1980s, and says opportunities are being squandered by not using exasperated returning fighters to try to dissuade others from taking up the jihadist cause.

"We can't say all returnees are the same, can't say they all present a similar threat," Barrett said. "Some will have made a mistake they regretted and want to put behind them. If someone comes back disillusioned, we should use him to get his help in trying to prevent others from going."

But he could not cite any returnees from Syria who have come forward, and German intelligence officials say they have not found any willing to cooperate, aside from someone under arrest like Kreshnik B., who faces a sentence of 3 1/4 to 4 1/4 years.
Even in his statement seeking mercy, Kreshnik B. did not condemn the brutality of the Islamic State, but merely complained that the fight was not what he had expected.