The German government is not planning to bring members of the terrorist militia Islamic State with German citizenship who are imprisoned in Syria back to Germany.
Following the fall of long-term ruler Bashar al-Assad, there are fears in the West of a resurgence of Islamic State in north-eastern Syria, especially given tens of thousands of members and their families are in prisons and camps there.
One way of disrupting any reconfiguration of the Islamic State threat in Syria would be to repatriate and prosecute German citizens at home, but the government has rejected this idea.
“There are no plans to bring back imprisoned German men from north-eastern Syria,” a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in Berlin said.
In seven repatriations to date, 27 women, 80 children and one adolescent male have been brought back to Germany from camps in north-eastern Syria, but only after they requested to return.
The German government is aware of a low double-digit number of other women and children who have a connection to Germany and are staying in camps in north-eastern Syria.
