Author: M Barbu

Reports: Foreign Fighters and the Threat of Returnees

On October 24, The Soufan Center and The Global Strategy Network released the collaborative report “Beyond the Caliphate: Foreign Fighters and the Threat of Returnees” on the global threat posed by Islamic State foreign fighters returning from Iraq and Syria. According to the report, at least 5,600 men, women and children from 33 countries have already returned home. Returnees have varying reasons for going home, but all represent a major security concern for countries of origin, residence, and even third-countries. Globally, states have yet to find adequate ways to address the threat of returnees, the report says. Women and children represent a more difficult subset for states.

The Beyond the Caliphate report also draws on a manual, Responses to returnees: Foreign terrorist fighters and their families, issued by the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) in July 2017. The manual outlines practical responses for states to address foreign fighters and their families returning from conflict zones in Iraq and Syria. The following are excerpts from both the reports.

Balkan foreign fighters: from Syria to Ukraine

Although the phenomenon of foreign fighters is certainly not new, recent developments in Syria and Iraq have put this issue back on the European Union’s security agenda. The Western Balkan region is not an exception to this trend. Violent extremism in the region is generally perceived through the lens of Islamist radicalisation and foreign fighters who joined Daesh or Al-Nusra in Syria and Iraq. Other forms of extrem- ism, such as right-wing nationalism, if acknowledged at all, are regarded as a secondary concern.

Although national legislations recognise foreign fighting as a criminal act regardless of the destina- tion, returnees from the Middle East face a robust security-based response in their countries of origin, whereas those returning from Ukraine usually remain exempt from prosecution and severe sanctions. This highlights the question of perception and treatment of foreign fighters by Western Balkan governments, particularly after an alleged coup attempt was foiled during Montenegro’s general elections in late 2016, revealing the role of former Western Balkan combatants fighting alongside pro-Russian separatists in the Ukrainian conflict.

Balkan Foreign Fighters Are Coming Back: What Should Be Done?

Recommendations

• Put an emphasis on reintegration instead of criminalization;
• Tailor responses to the returnees based on their motivations to join IS, motivations
to return and gender/age dynamics;
• Engage local religious, family and school communities in the process of
reintegration;
• Address push factors such as poverty, inequality, and economic insecurity.

Executive summary

The Islamic State (IS) will remain a threat in 2018, experts say. Thousands of
foreign fighters are now coming back to their home countries following the collapse of
the so-called “caliphate”. From the around 900 people from the Western Balkans who
have travelled to Syria and Iraq between 2011 and 2016, 250 have already returned.

Despite the different reasons for doing so, returnees raise security concerns, to which
local governments should respond.

LA RÉGION MENA FACE À LA CRISE DES RÉFUGIÉS

L’année 2016 aurait connu une forte augmentation du nombre de personnes déplacées dans le monde, selon le dernier rapport du Haut Commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés. Zoom sur la région MENA.

«L’Afrique du Nord et le Moyen-Orient continuent à faire face à de multiples situations d’urgence complexes, sans précédent. Des urgences qui vont encore être des défis difficiles à surmonter en 2016. Ces régions sont aujourd’hui des lieux de départ, de transit et des destinations d’arrivée pour les migrants et les réfugiés. Beaucoup, lors de leur périlleux voyage, notamment par la mer, sont victimes de trafics et de passage irrégulier.»

LE VOYAGE

C’est se lancer dans un long voyage que de partir de chez soi et migrer. Et finalement arrive-t-on jamais un jour ? Le périple commence toujours loin du pays à rejoindre et prend du temps. Des kilomètres parcourus, des pays traversés et des chemins de vie imprévus.

Le voyage d’un migrant est fait de moments, qui mis bout à bout, font un voyage.

Voici des témoignages, recueillis dans six pays, et qui forment une boucle. Les voix des migrants, des voyageurs, se mêlent, et au final elles ne font qu’une. Elles racontent les voyages, le voyage.

Djibril, damné des frontières

Djibril* aura tenté quatre fois de traverser la Méditerranée pour atteindre l’Europe. Depuis la Gambie jusqu’à la Libye, le parcours migratoire du jeune homme est un cauchemar : il perd toutes ses économies, est abandonné dans le désert et jeté en prison plusieurs fois.

Dans sa cuisine, Djibril, un pinceau à la main, peint une scène représentant des femmes peules, la communauté de sa mère. Concentré sur son oeuvre, cette activité lui permet de s’occuper mais aussi d’oublier les épreuves qu’il a traversées. Cela fait maintenant huit mois qu’il vit à Zarzis, à 550 kilomètres au sud de la capitale tunisienne.

Le jeune homme est originaire de la Casamance, dans le sud du Sénégal. À partir de 1982, la région est le théâtre d’un conflit entre les forces gouvernementales et les indépendantistes du Mouvement des forces démocratiques de Casamance (MFDC). La guerre civile fait plusieurs centaines de victimes, dont le père de Djibril, qui meurt en 1999.

LA SFIDA GLOBALE DELLE MIGRAZIONI

Il concetto di migrazione, che comprende la ricerca di asilo da motivi politici e non politici, è parte integrante della creazione dello sviluppo islamico e della concezione islamica dei diritti dell’uomo. Nel 621 d.C. il Profeta Muhammad (pace su di lui), decise di lasciare la sua città natale Mecca e cercò sicurezza in quella che sarebbe diventata la città di Medina , dove in una delle sue prime e nobili azioni riuscì a portare la pace ad una società travagliata da uno stato di divisione interna. Questo evento denominato “hijrah”, o migrazione, è venuto a simboleggiare il movimento dei musulmani dalle terre dell’oppressione a quelle della sicurezza e della pace. Inoltre, il trattamento ospitale ricevuto da Muhammad (pace su di lui) e dalla giovane comunità musulmana da parte del popolo di Medina incarna il concetto islamico di protezione dei rifugiati contenuto nel Corano, in cui la migrazione e il concetto di ricerca di protezione e sicurezza da persecuzioni – nella terminologia islamica “amaana” – è riconosciuto come un diritto umano individuale.

Radicalizzazione: necessità di una risposta condivisa

Il fenomeno della radicalizzazione all’interno delle comunità musulmane in Europa occupa comprensibilmente un ruolo centrale nella pubblica opinione. I recenti atti terroristici perpetrati da individui che pretendono di agire in nome dell’Islam hanno causato un acceso dibattito . Purtroppo le discussioni e i dibattiti attorno alla radicalizzazione sono stati in gran parte dominati da interessi di parte e di opportunità politica. È di fondamentale importanza arrivare ad una posizione ricca di sfumature su questo complesso fenomeno, con affermazioni teoriche che siano motivate empiricamente.

Il termine ‘radicalizzazione’ è generalmente un termine controverso. Può implicare diverse posizioni, tra cui una reazione all’ortodossia o rompere con idee politiche tradizionali, ecc. Tuttavia, nel contesto di questo dibattito postula la manifestazione di un pensiero e di un comportamento estremisti che raggiungono il culmine con la pianificazione e l’esecuzione di atti terroristici.

US Report shows Montenegrin officials involved in human trafficking

Montenegro is a source, transit and destination country for men, women and children subjected to sex trafficking, the U.S. State Department has stated.

Montenegrin officials are involved in human trafficking, the State Department’s 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report reads.

Trafficking victims are mostly women and girls from Eastern Europe and other Balkan countries, including Serbia and Kosovo, who migrate or are smuggled through the country en route to Western Europe and are subjected to sex trafficking in Montenegro, the State Department said in the report.

Nigerian doctors say Thaci is involved in organ trafficking

The Nigerian Medical Association in Imo State has accused billionaire and governor Rochas Okrocha of trafficking human organs.

He is accused of doing so “with officials of Turkey and Croatia, and with Hashim Thaci.”

Thaci is currently Kosovo’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister.