Should the children of foreign IS fighters in Iraq and Syria be allowed to return home? Security agencies are alarmed, but aid workers say they’re no danger if they get proper support. Judit Neurink reports from Irbil.
Thousands of children left behind by Western ‘Islamic State’ (IS) fighters are currently stuck in limbo, locked up with their mothers in Iraqi or Syrian prisons, as politicians in their countries of origin debate whether they have an obligation to bring them home.
While grandparents in the Netherlands and Belgium are demanding the return of the kids as their citizens, governments are dragging their feet. The authorities say they may be dangerous and that allowing the children to reunite with their grandparents might encourage their IS parents to return home.
Both the German and the Dutch security agencies have issued warnings concerning the perceived danger posed by these children. The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (BfV), Hans-Georg Maassen, told the German press agency DPA that they have been brainwashed and radicalized in IS “schools,” and could be very dangerous. The Dutch security agency AIVD warned that minors have been taught “that anyone who doesn’t abide by the correct interpretation of Islam must be killed.”
For more read the full of article at The Dw
