BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

RETURNEE FOREIGN TERRORIST FIGHTERS (FTFs): EVOLVING THREATS AND RESPONSE STRATEGY

Author: Sheikh Masud Ahmed

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2019v40n2a2

ABSTRACT

The ‘Foreign Terrorist Fighter (FTF)’ phenomenon in contemporary time has got prominence since the inception of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. Thousands of different nationals especially from European countries travelled or made efforts to travel in war-torn Iraq and Syria to fight for the terrorist groups, predominantly the Islamic State (IS/Da’esh). It is argued that a bulk of the FTFs might have gone back to the countries of origin or home countries after the substantial loss of IS territory/Caliphate in Syria. The concern regarding the returnee FTFs assumed high priority on the political agenda of many Western countries for about last half a decade and stressed on a broad array of policies and strategies: policy on prevention of radicalization; information sharing and intelligence exchange; responses to returnees with criminal justice trial; deradicalization, rehabilitation, and reintegration with the mainstream population. However, the ‘Global Village’ is not immune from the menace and spillover effects of FTFs and the returnees. Thus, the present paper makes an effort to trace the universal response strategies against FTFs and the returnees including the associated families. It attempts to answer some fundamental questions, i.e., who are the foreign terrorist fighters? why do they go to foreign land to fight? and what are they likely to do when the fight is over? It furthermore examines how some of the affected countries have responded to the menace of FTFs and the returnees. The paper also argues that global communities are facing formidable challenges to counter the terrorist activities of FTFs and the returnees. Thus, there is a need to have a comprehensive approach to eliminate the risks eminating from contemporary FTF phenomenon.