Issue Paper: Reintegration of Returnees from Syria and Iraq; InFoEx Workshop, Berlin, December 5-6, 2019

Abstract

More than 5,000 people have left Western Europe since 2012 to join jihadist organizations such as the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq (Renard & Coolsaet 2018). By now, about one third have returned to their countries of origin. This illustrates the international dimension of what it means to prevent violent extremism. The group of “IS returnees” is heterogeneous and includes men, women, and children or adolescents. Some have committed crimes while abroad and need to be considered radicalized even after their return. However, due to the difficulty of obtaining evidence, many perpetrators receive only short prison sentences. Dealing with returnees is of great relevance for the field of tertiary prevention of (violent) Islamist extremism. At the same time, it poses new challenges for the actors. Exchanging knowledge at an international level is thus essential to enable an effective and sustainable response. An international workshop in Berlin in December 2019, which took place as part of the International Forum for Ex-pert Exchange on Countering Islamist Extremism (InFoEx), addressed the issue of reintegrating returnees from Syria and Iraq. The conference was organized by the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in cooperation with the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) and included about 30 participants from Belgium, France, and Germany. The workshop offered insights into the importance of having a structured and trusting cooperation between all relevant actors, providing returnees with access to psychotherapeutic treatment, giving children and adolescents special consideration, and working with highly radicalized returnees. This issue paper presents challenges and good practices for each of these aspects discussed during the workshop. The paper also offers practical recommendations from experts and some exemplary projects. From these findings, the following key recommendations for actors dealing with returnees from Syria and Iraq emerge: 1. Strengthen the overall case management and, depending on the case, involve other relevant actors such as teachers or youth welfare offices. 2. Make the relevant actors, including in particular the staff of youth welfare offices and the prison system, aware of the various issues linked to returnees. 3. If needed, enable returnees’ access to psychothera- peutic treatment. 4. Take into account the complexity of possible traumas and strengthen long-term protective factors, especially for children and adolescents in puberty. 5. Avoid stigmatization, e.g. at school, so as not to hamper reintegration. 6. Neither underrate nor overrate female returnees, but take into account commonalities as well as gender- specific differences, for example concerning their role in the structures of the IS.