The Kurdish authorities in the North of Syria are not going to trapped foreign-fighters just to let you go. “We never let them free. That we would never do,” says Abdulkarim Omar, a local ^ which is charged with foreign relations. He speaks about a “time bomb”, because prisoners can escape as the autonomous region is attacked.
^ warns that jihadists could escape if chaos ensues during a possible Turkish attack on the autonomous region. Ankara sees Kurdish Volksbeschermingseenheden (YPG) as a threat to national security and an extension of the banned PKK movement. The USA see the YPG, especially as an ally against IS, but president Donald Trump has announced his troops to pull back from Syria.
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According to Omar there are every day dozens of prisoners. It comes to fighters, but also to women and children who need to be picked up. He says that there are currently nearly 800 IS fighters are stuck from almost 50 different nationalities. In addition, there are also at least 700 wives of fighters and 1,500 children in camps. In the Kurdish prisons are also at least four Belgian-fighters. the
“It seems that most countries have decided that they are finished with them and they want to here, but that is a huge mistake,” says the diplomat. He warns that major issues can arise if no work is made of the persecution of the foreign fighters.
Trump has European countries recently called on foreign IS-fighters in captivity to bring back from Syria and to bring to trial. The alternative is, according to Trump that the jihadists back on a free and probably on your own return to Europe.
