The fate of European foreign fighters and families detained in Syria, one year after the Turkish offensive
Thomas Renard & Rik Coolsaet (Egmont Institute)Foreign Fighters and the Terrorist Threat in Belgium
Returnees are no longer the sole – or even main – concern of security services.
Rik Coolsaet, Thomas Renard (ISPI)Terrorism and Counter Terrorism: European and American experiences
Two classes on terrorism & counterterrorism at CERIS (Brussels), 10-11 January 2020
(CERIS, Brussels)New figures on European nationals detained in Syria and Iraq
New estimates compiled by the Egmont Institute contradict some of the figures circulating previously on the number of European adults and children detained in Syria and Iraq.
Thomas Renard, Rik Coolsaet (Egmont Institute)Losing Control Over Returnees?
Europe is not yet done with the challenge of returning foreign fighters, and time is not on its side.
Thomas Renard, Rik Coolsaet (Lawfare)European leaders hit at Trump’s demands that they take back ex-ISIS citizens from Syria
Security services believe that it would be safer to have potentially dangerous citizens inside their home countries, where they can more easily be monitored, than to have them float free in the tumult of the Middle East.
Michael Birnbaum (Washington Post)Let Shamima Begum return to UK or risk more terror recruits, says expert
“Nobody, but really nobody, with the exception of France, wants them back.”
Daniel Boffey et.al (The Guardian)How Is Belgium Living With Its ISIS Returnees?
The country’s policy towards returning jihadists has evolved, and it has security lessons other countries could learn from. But Belgium also has a long way to go in tackling the problems that helped drive many young people towards ISIS in the first place
Eleanor Beevor (Al Bawaba (Jordan))Children in the Levant
According to intelligence estimates, there are around 1,400 European children in Syria and Iraq, many of them born there. The fate of these children confronts European governments with moral, legal, political, diplomatic and security dilemmas. Governments are divided over the issue, but almost all are reluctant to address it head-on.
Thomas Renard, Rik Coolsaet (Security Policy Brief Egmont)The Homecoming of Foreign Fighters in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium: Policies and Challenges
In this Perspective, Rik Coolsaet and Thomas Renard comment on the risks posed by returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters, and examine how Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands have attempted to address these risks.
Rik Coolsaet, Thomas Renard (ICCT)Reassessing Belgium’s “Failed” Counterterrorism Policy
Belgium has earned a bad name in counterterrorism circles, with critics charging that its security services did too little too late when it came to disrupting the Islamic State and other groups on Belgian soil. The tragic terrorist attack in Brussels two years ago, however, marked a turning point.
Thomas Renard, Rik Coolsaet (Lawfare)