Daesh let its “lonely wolves” to invade on Europe from refugee camps

Nora Bendary

Terrorist organizations use various means to recruit cadres, including incursions into refugee camps, trying to convince refugees and immigrants to join them, taking advantage of the difficult conditions they experience. Most of them suffer from the scourge of war, in addition to the problems of poverty and need, what makes it easy to convince them with the extremist ideology.

The terrorist organization Daesh effectively managed to infiltrate into these camps and recruited a considerable number of refugees, which led to the implementation of several terrorist operations in the vicinity of those camps.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in 2015, Europe received more than 1 million refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. In Europe, Germany is the first country to receive refugees.

According to statistics of the Federal Department of Migration and Refugees, Germany received in 2016 about 722,370 asylum applications, and most of the refugees who entered Germany during the past two years were from Syria and then refugees from Afghanistan came in the second place and then Iraq. France comes second after Germany receiving 85,244 thousand refugees in 2016 According to figures from the French Interior Ministry.

Daesh in Europe’s camps

A European police report published by the British newspaper The Guardian on January 24, 2016, warned that Daesh had set up training camps close to the European Union and the Balkans to prepare fighters such as special forces to carry out attacks in the United Kingdom or other countries.

The German authorities, according to the report, were aware of the existence of about 300 recorded attempts to recruit refugees, who are trying to enter Europe by April 2016, and that a number of jihadists are already traveling through Europe for this purpose.

In the camps of Greece, specifically the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, members of the Daesh organization spread their extremist ideas. The American site The Interpest reported that in late May, the effects of “da’ash” ideas appeared in the Greek camps.

The main reason for the European countries’ fear is the influx of large numbers of immigrants from Syria to the European continent, in fear of the infiltration of jihadist elements to Daesh organisation.

Some people in Europe even go so far as to see that there is a systematic program of the Islamization and re-invasion of Europe. And that the waves of refugees are only a process of “peaceful invasion” by some extremist organizations to the West to turn its civilization upside down.

It seems from the above that the “push” targeting vulnerable refugees in Europe in an attempt to increase the numbers of elements of the organization, but the refugees themselves are also paying the price of extremism brewing inside the camp, which requires the Europeans to be cautious in facing the threat of Daesh, represented by these well-trained foreigners on the use of explosives and firearms, and also with extremist ideology