The governments of Central Asian countries, unlike European countries, are world leaders in repatriating their citizens from camps in northeast Syria, Khalid Cosser, head of the Global Community Resilience Fund (GCERF) against radicalization, said.
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GCERF is an international organization that supports local initiatives aimed at preventing extremism and violence. It provides funding and facilitates partnerships between governments, civil society and the private sector to strengthen social cohesion and resilience.
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“The Central Asian states took the initiative to respond to this situation (with camps in northeast Syria), becoming world leaders in the repatriation and reintegration of their citizens. They returned about 2,200 of their citizens. The Republic of Kazakhstan returned 754 of its citizens, the Kyrgyz Republic – 533 citizens, Republic of Tajikistan – 381 citizens and Republic of Uzbekistan – 531 citizen,” he said.
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Cosser believes that European countries have not done this job and have simply “abandoned” their citizens without taking responsibility as a state.
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“If you compare Belgium with Tajikistan, in Tajikistan they will say ‘these are our citizens, we are responsible to them.’ Western Europe just hopes that this problem will disappear on its own, that they will die in the camps and that it will be enough to just turn a blind eye to it “, he explained.
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He said GCEF’s experience working with Central Asian countries on repatriation from camps in northeast Syria showed that some things could still be improved, as on several occasions repatriated women and children subsequently returned to Syria.
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“But again we are talking mainly about women and children. Now the question will concern men. How to repatriate people who clearly fought, were terrorists, who will not be hired… And most of them will go to prison, which will lead to radicalization in the prison world,” the head of GCERF added.
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In the northeast of Syria – on territory controlled by the Arab-Kurdish units of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the United States – there is a camp in which, according to various sources, live from 65 thousand to 70 thousand refugees, mainly women and children from families of militants of the terrorist organization ISIS. Among the residents of the camp, in addition to the Syrians, there are citizens of other countries. Kurdish fighters are preventing refugees from leaving these camps, which, however, are not officially prisons.
