Widows of ISIS fighter are stuck between a rock and a hard place as Bosnian state has no deradicalization programs, while their children are stateless.
As the Islamic State takes a last stand, Bosnia is one of the European countries struggling to find a solution for the relatives of militant Islamist fighters still in the Middle East, Reuters reports.
According to Bosnian intelligence, cited by Radio Free Europe, 241 adults and 80 children left from 2012-2016 from Bosnia or the Bosnian diaspora for Syria and Iraq, the birthplace of more than 150 children.
During that same time, about 100 adults, including 49 women, remained there while at least 88 have been killed or died. About 50 have returned to Bosnia, including seven children.
Although the Bosnian central government announced last year plans for the creation of a coordination body to deal with the return of Islamic fighters and their families, it has not yet materialized.
“There are certainly security aspects of their return, it cannot be perceived as if just some women and children should be returned to Bosnia from somewhere,” Security Minister Dragan Mektic told Reuters.
One of the thorny issues of the repatriation process is that, according to Mektic, while Bosnia has to take back people who are its citizens, their children were never registered as such – not to mention that the deaths of their fathers have not always been verified in any way. Additionally, there are no programs for the integration of the returnees, TOL reports.
