Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Falling Numbers of Extremists Departing Germany to Join ISIS | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55362424
Caption:

Police stand guard outside as officers investigate a residential building where arrested suspects are thought to live, in Alsdorf near Aachen, Germany November 17, 2015. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender


Berlin- The number of extremists departing from German territory to join ISIS ranks in Syria and Iraq has witnessed a steep decline, says a recently published study.

German newspaper ‘Sueddeutsche’ said on Thursday that a common study carried out by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and local police reveals that the trips embarked on by German ISIS supporters has almost come to a cease.

It is expected that the study will be put up during the next interior conference to be held in Sulzbach, Saarland state. The newspaper described the study as all-inclusive, with no competing references, as both the federal parliamentary republic and regional states having contributed to producing the report.

The study mentioned that the earlier announcement of the self-proclaimed caliphate in June 2014 had played greatly into increasing popular sentiment encouraging an unprecedented worldwide surge in recruitment.

During peak conflict, over a hundred people had traveled within a month’s time to war zones. The figures have notably declined, recording a favorable low in following years—only five cases per month of extremists boarding suspicious flights throughout June 2015 and June 2016 were registered, the paper added.

At the same time, the report warns that the ultra-hardline group ISIS requests that recruits stay in their native countries and carry out terror activities from within. Despite the warning, no relevance was drawn between ISIS’ demands and the shrinking number of recruits undertaking missions abroad.

Security standing in the Western European country has, nonetheless, dwindled as ISIS ideology further projected itself into German society, leading to gruesome and sporadic lone wolf attacks.