Syria's rehabilitation of returnees, challenge for institutions

About 100 people from Kosovo currently find themselves in the conflict zone in Syria and Iraq, out of them over 40 persons considered fighters at I SIS and AL-NUSRA.

That's how officials from Kosovo Police have announced.

“Based on data owned by the Directorate Against Terrorism, currently in the conflict area of Syria and Iraq, about 100 people from Kosovo, or born in the conflict area of at least one Kosovo parent, while more than 40 are considered a fighter of I SIS and AL-NUSRA”, said the PK's response.

Skender Pertesh, from the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (QKSS), has said that men who have been foreign fighters and who have returned to Kosovo are being tried and are currently in prison because they are estimated to contain high level of risk.

“Gras are also undergoing court procedures because of their participation in Syria and Iraq and are currently under house arrest. And the children have returned to their families or their mothers to their former family. Consistent with the age that children are having is going on as a nursery, whether they're continuing school education or in certain cases even middle-level education”, Perteshi said of EO.

Pertesh, stresses that the reintegration and rehabilitation of these returnees is a challenge for Kosovo institutions.

“Never has it happened in the past that Albanians travel to battle with another country for religious cause, is the first time, and the reintegration and rehabilitation of them require the entire institutional and social mobilization. It also requires skill and knowledge that it is a very complex problem and should be disposed of for rehabilitation and reintegration of them completely into society”, Perteshi stressed.

According to him, citizens are reluctant to accept Syria's returnees because of their idea that they have participated in conflicts abroad, and there is a high degree of danger of them.

All are accepted by their families. Facing economic challenges rather than accepting the community. In Syria they've had a whole different environment, they've lived with a whole different mentality, here's something else they're trying to adapt to the new system of life in Kosovo”.

Their children are trying to train or follow the necessary steps for these children to be educated and even meet the needs of the lack of schooling they have spent years in the conflict area of Syria and Iraq”, he added.

Pertesh points out that for such ones, especially for children, it should be thought, not in their stigma, but in order for such children to socialize with others.

Whether people left in conflict areas in Syria and Iraq should return, Pertashi says the state has responsibilities for its citizens, no matter where they are.

Even foreign fighters must return to Kosovo to face the law being tried and given the sentence as much as the legislation in Kosovo provides for the action they have taken”, it has ended.

In April of this year, 110 people have returned from Syria to Kosovo, out of them 74 children, 32 women and four men suspected of being part of the so-called Islamic State.