Trump threatens again to release Daesh prisoners into Europe

Shaimaa Hefzy

President Donald Trump Wednesday ruled out sending thousands of Daesh foreign fighters currently being detained by U.S. allies in Syria to the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying that the Daesh detainees should be repatriated to their countries of origin.

“We’re going to tell them and we’ve already told them take these prisoners that we’ve captured because the United States is not going to put them in Guantanamo for the next 50 years and pay for it,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn.

Trump repeated a threat to release Daesh fighters back to their country of origin. “We are holding thousands of Daesh fighters right now and Europe has to take them and if Europe doesn’t take them, I’ll have no choice but to release them into the countries from which they came which is Germany and France and other places,” Trump said.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are currently holding more than 2,000 foreign Daesh fighters from over 50 countries in makeshift detention facilities in addition to some 8,000 Syrian and Iraqi prisoners.

Trump’s proposal also comes amid plans to reduce the number of SDF troops, which raised fears that the extremist movement might enflame Syria and the surrounding territory.

Amid warnings regarding Daesh return by returning its fighters in Syrian custody, the detention camps leave a precarious situation for the SDF, which relies on the presence of US personnel but is responsible for holding thousands of prisoners in temporary facilities.

The U.S.-backed militia that fought Daesh took some 9,000 prisoners. Around 2,000 are foreign fighters from dozens of countries, ranging from the United States to Russia, Tunisia to China and Morocco to the Maldives.

The Trump administration has been pressuring European governments to repatriate the fighters and their wives captured by US-backed troops for nearly two years, to no avail.

France, Germany and Britain have bluntly refused to take back their citizens, allowing only their children to be sent home on a case-by-case basis.

About 1,050 Germans joined Daesh in the Middle East after 2013, and about 1,190 French citizens joined the group, according to Soufan Center.

The US State Department counterterrorism coordinator Nathan Sales further said the US was urging other nations to repatriate the Daesh fighters and prosecute them.

In June, France passed legislation to repatriate French jihadists on a case-by-case basis — 12 French and two Dutch orphans whose parents were militants were transported to France. Germany also considered children as “victims” and has allowed them to be repatriated.