This European country is offering returning Islamic State fighters free housing and benefits

Local authority says militants will be treated similarly to criminals and neo-Nazis

A programme to rehabilitate former Islamic State fighters and other extremists with housing, employment, education and financial support is being introduced in Sweden.

Local authorities in the city of Lund say the controversial measures aim to reintegrate returned militants into society in order to prevent them from reverting to their former networks.



The municipal coordinator against violent extremism, Anna Sjöstrand, said that although the proposals were controversial, she believes that former Islamic State fighters should be dealt with in the same way as those leaving organised crime and neo-Nazi groups.

“When this subject came up we thought: ‘Oh god, how should we handle this’,” she told Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio. Pretty quickly we realised that we should deal with this in the same way.” She added, “If you have committed a criminal act should take responsibility for it, but there are many aspects - one could for example look at it in terms of cost. It is much cheaper to reintegrate a person into society than to abandon them, for example.”



Christoffer Carlsson, a criminologist, supporting the plans after conducting a report on extremist defectors for the Swedish government, said that people attempting to leave a group such as the Islamic State need a way to break out of their networks and to avoid regression. “You need resources, you need to reintegrate into the job market, you need a license, you need a roof over your head,” he told Sveriges Radio. “I fail to see why you should treat people who leave violent extremism differently (to young criminals).”

Methods of dealing with returning militants are a subject of fierce debate across Europe as the terrorist group continues to lose territory across Syria and Iraq, with fears of an influx of militants fleeing a major offensive in Iraq.

“The retaking of Isis’s northern Iraqi stronghold, Mosul, may lead to the return to Europe of violent Isis fighters,” said Julian King, Commissioner for the (European) Security Union. The approach pioneered in Lund is also reportedly being considered in the Swedish cities of Malmö, Borlänge and Örebro.



Around one fifth of the group’s militants – 3,700 people – are residents or nationals of Western Europe, a King’s College London study estimated last year. Around 140 Swedish foreign fighters are believed to have returned from Syria and Iraq, out of at least 300 who travelled to the region to join extremist groups. Sweden is believed to have one of the highest Islamic State fighters per capita in Europe, although it sits far behind France, the UK, Belgium and Germany in terms of numbers.

A recent report found that the majority of European Islamic State fighters have a criminal background, with the group’s propaganda deliberately attempting to attract young men searching for redemption.

This article originally appeared on Independent.