Faeser’s IS deportation plan – warning and criticism from Syria

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants to deport dangerous individuals to Syria “very soon”. This could lead to a renewed strengthening of the “Islamic State” there.

Berlin/Ain Issa – After the deadly attack in Solingen, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) announced that dangerous individuals would be deported from Germany to Syria “very soon”. The suspected perpetrator from Solingen, a Syrian, confessed to being a member of the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS). The Kurdish self-administration in northern Syria is holding thousands of former IS fighters and their families and is still fighting against IS cells. Now a high-ranking representative of the Kurdish de facto government is sharply criticizing Faeser’s deportation plans.

Spokeswoman for the Kurdish self-administration warns against deportation of IS threats to Syria

In a detailed interview with the platform Time Online Îlham Ehmed, co-chair of the Foreign Ministry, warned against deporting IS threats to Syria. At the beginning of the Syrian revolution, which turned into a civil war lasting years, Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad released thousands of Islamists. “They turned the revolution into an Islamist one,” said Ehmed. If governments today tried to hand over Islamist threats to Assad’s regime, “the same scenario would probably repeat itself,” warned the politician.

Syria main country of origin of asylum seekers in 2023 – Kurds fight against IS and Erdogan

According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), Syria was the main country of origin of asylum seekers in Germany in 2023, with 104,000 asylum seekers. Syria’s borders are not insurmountable. Repatriation alone will not solve the problems. Germany’s NATO partner Turkey is leading for years a war against the Kurdish de facto state. The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan supported since the beginning of the civil war Islamist forces in Syria.

The Kurdish news agency reports daily ANF Attacks on Kurdish security forces. These are mostly carried out by pro-Turkish mercenary troops or Turkish drones. The Kurdish self-administration is forced to cooperate with the Russian-backed Assad regime. At the same time, US special forces are still deployed against IS cells in northern Syria.

Kurdish and US special forces arrest escaped IS leader

The main tasks of the Kurdish security forces and their international partners in the fight against IS are to control the captured IS fighters and to combat the remaining IS cells. According to US military sources, an IS cell was dismantled by Kurdish and US special forces on September 1st. Its leader had only recently escaped from a prison camp in the former de facto capital of IS, Raqqa. Among those arrested were foreign Islamists
who had escaped from captivity.

“New generation of IS” is growing up in Syrian prisons – Kurdish politician warns Faeser

The thousands of IS fighters in Kurdish captivity are “literally a locked-up IS army” that remains dangerous, said the US general responsible for the arrest. And this army already consists partly of Islamists from Europe. Ehmed explained that attempts had been made to deport the foreign IS terrorists back to Europe. But most Western governments are refusing to bring their citizens back. That is dangerous, because the “new generation of IS” is growing up in the prison camps.

The think tank came to a similar conclusion German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) already in 2020. Human rights organizations have repeatedly criticized the conditions in some internment camps as inhumane.