What to do with former Isis fighters is a problem that isn’t going away

Picture the image: today a US citizen, an alleged Isis fighter, was left marooned in the heavily militarised no man’s land between Turkey and Greece, unable to move beyond the gap between the two border post because he had no papers.

Turkey was so determined to offload some of the hundreds of foreign nationals it has captured during the campaign against Isis, it had tried to expel the unnamed man in the direction of Greece.

But since the fighter had no proper papers, Athens rejected him. And so he remained stuck. It is unclear if he is still there waiting at the gates.

The bizarre image of an Isis fighter shuttling aimlessly between two borders hammers home the ludicrous situation we are in since countries continue to refuse to take charge of their nationals.

The United Kingdom is among the worst offenders, particularly in Syria.

Rather than dealing with the tricky legal accountability of managing the repatriation of hundreds of British fighters, they have stripped the citizenship of the likes of “Jihadi” Jack Letts and Shamima Begum, from Bethnal Green, leaving them in the indefinite care of Kurdish backed Syrian forces.

There has been little word, meanwhile, on bringing home more than 60 children, whose parents may have been in Isis, and are still trapped in Northern Syria, despite repeated pleas from Save the Children.

Among them are several orphans who have had to flee artillery fire and airstrikes from a Turkish incursion against the Kurds launched last month.

In total there are an estimated 12,000 foreign Isis fighters currently being held by Kurdish forces, alongside thousands of their family members.

The Kurds have repeatedly begged states to take their nationals home, telling this paper that they cannot secure Isis prisons and camps for much longer amid the fighting.

It now seems that Turkey at least will just start expelling their captives no matter what.

Ankara has vowed to rid itself of nearly all the 12,000 foreign Isis fighters in Turkish prisons, even if that means just sending them towards Greece.

On Monday they already attempted to expel a Danish national and a German alongside the American. It is unclear if they made it home.

States need to step up and take action now. Leaving their nationals in literal or legal limbo land is simply not the answer.

Yours,

Bel Trew

Middle East correspondent