Can returned extremist fighters be rehabilitated?
Participants in a White House summit on countering violent extremism say the most useful aspect was exchanging information on the sidelines of the meetings about how to prevent recruitment of vulnerable youth and rehabilitate foreign fighters returning home from Syria and Iraq.
Authorities in Denmark’s second largest city of Aarhus couldn’t stop an ethnic Somali teenager from joining extremists fighting in Syria two years ago but they appear to have been able to rehabilitate him after he returned.
Jacob Bundsgaard, mayor of Aarhus, said that mentoring and working with the family of the young man — whom he did not otherwise identify — smoothed reintegration into Danish society after the youth returned “physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted” by his experiences. He has even been able to re-enroll in his old high school, the mayor said.
