How will Tunisia deal with thousands of returning jihadis?
Tunisian officials are caught between their international obligation to process and prosecute returning militants and the public's desire to see them banished.
The return of Tunisian fighters from conflict zones in Syria, Iraq and Libya has Tunisia torn. The Tunisian authorities are torn between public pressure to revoke the citizenship of the returning terrorists and the state’s international commitments that necessitate a minimum of cooperation with other countries to hand over Tunisians suspected of links with jihadi groups.
In his latest speech on New Year’s Eve, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi firmly stated that Tunisia “will implement the law against Tunisians returning home from battlefields in Syria, Libya and Iraq and will not welcome them with open arms.” Essebsi had previously said in an interview with Euronews on Dec. 2, “Jihadis are no longer a threat, and many of them want to return home. … We will not put them all in jail.”
On Dec. 30, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed declared that his government “will treat those returning home with strictness and will prosecute them upon their return.” Despite his reassurance, controversy spread among Tunisians divided on how to handle the fighters returning home from conflict zones abroad.
On Jan. 7, many Tunisians took to the streets of the capital, Tunis. In response to the call of civil society activists and intellectuals, they condemned “the return of terrorists from conflict zones.”
