Recent protests erupted in Tunisia denouncing the return of the terrorists who participated in the fighting in Iraq, Syria and Libya to Tunisia. In this context, Tunisian authorities say that about three thousand Tunisians have traveled to war zones and hotbeds of tension in the region, and that 800 of them returned to Tunisia, while foreign sources say they are 5800.
Tunisian circles are concerned of the risk that more of these terrorists would flee the increasing attacks on Daesh terrorists in Iraq and Syria, which makes their fate a real crisis for their countries.
The scenario of the return of the terrorists involved in the fighting for Daesh brings to our memory the phenomenon of “Afghan Arabs” or “Arab Afghans”, which emerged strongly after the fighting against the former Soviet Union forces in Afghanistan and the return of many of those who were called mujahedeen (jihadists) from Afghanistan to Arab and Islamic countries. Their return was marked with security disasters in which these elements were involved. They were used to fight and gained experience from fighting in guerrilla warfare and using weapons and explosives. War became their source of livelihood, or rather a mercenary activity they cannot easily abandon to return to their normal life.
A while ago, I warned in my articles about the scenario and the consequences of the return of Daesh fighters to both Arab or Western countries and how this return may cause a security disaster for these countries. but it seems that no one was prepared for such a scenario as officials in these countries did not think of finding alternatives to prevent the return of these elements with their ideas, plans and combating experiences, not to mention the fact that they are unemployed and will not find jobs so they will look for new sources of income, often as terrorists in proxy wars in favor of regional or international powers ready to finance their plans and their schemes, or to assign them with new ones.
Some of the demonstrators in Tunisia lifted slogans demanding their government to withdraw citizenship from these terrorist elements, while others have called for referring them to the International Criminal Tribunal for punishment for their terrorist crimes that have caused the destruction in countries and the displacement of millions of people.
Lawyers say Tunisia does not have the proper legislature to deal with the return of terrorists from sectarian conflict zones. It seems that it is not confined to Tunisia only, but extends to most countries which can stand powerless to address this imminent danger through legal instruments and mechanisms, even if they had arsenals of laws and regulations as such a risk was not known in the past decades and centuries.
Strangely, despite the amount of security threat caused by the presence of thousands of terrorist elements returning to their country, we find that some think that to prevent them from returning is unconstitutional, or believe in the possibility of re-integrating these terrorists in their natural communities.
In such cases, the constitutions and laws were made to deal with normal situations in normal conditions, and therefore applying those to unprecedented cases or conditions becomes a risk with uncalculated consequences. Security threats change and get complicated. To measure those using existing legislative, legal and constitutional parameters puts at risk the security and future of the homeland.
Objectively speaking, the phenomenon of returnees from Syria is not confined to Tunisia alone, but includes most of the Arab countries. Tunisia opened this controversial debate about their fate, but the discussions are happening in every country on this file.
This deepening crisis is also not limited to Tunisia or other Arab countries, but will have deeper and more complicated repercussions in European countries from which dozens, perhaps hundreds of its nationals, traveled to Iraq, Syria, and joined Daesh for many years during which they acquired combat experience that qualifies them to undermine security in these countries.
The difference between some Arab countries and Europe is that study centers and institutions are involved in discussing possible scenarios in this context, since the beginning of this security-disturbing phenomenon. In Germany, the third largest countries in Europe, after France and Belgium, in terms of the number of fighters that joined Daesh, statistics indicate that one-third of the elements that I have traveled to Syria have returned to Germany already, and that the judiciary is facing a dilemma in prosecuting them for their crimes except for crimes related to affiliation to a terrorist organization.
European countries such as Germany implement projects emerging from each single case, in order to determine the possibility of reintegration into the community and subjecting the individual to educational programs and providing means for living and work. But concerns are still growing about the likeliness for these individuals to return to extremism and terrorism under different circumstances.
The basic problem, in my opinion, is not in the willingness of communities and nations to accept them, but the willingness of terrorists to give up their ideas and beliefs and re-integrate into the communities. Experiments indicate that most of them come back and hide, but the idea remains in their head and they do not show any willingness to give it up. They sometimes return to prepare for new recruitment to join other organizations in areas of conflict under new slogans and new sectarian affiliations, which means that it’s not as easy as some people imagine. The problem does not end simply with their return.
