COPENHAGEN: Denmark will fast-track legislation allowing people with dual citizenship who have gone abroad to fight for militant groups like Islamic State to be stripped of their Danish nationality, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday .
European states are trying to accelerate a plan to shift thousands of foreign Islamic State militants out of Syrian prison camps and into Iraq, as a fresh conflict in Syria has raised the risk of militants escaping or returning home."There is a risk that the Kurdish-controlled IS-camps in the border area will collapse and that foreign warriors with Danish citizenship will move towards Denmark," Frederiksen said in a statement.
Authorities believe at least 158 people from Denmark have joined militant militant groups in Syria or Iraq since 2012, about 27 of whom remain in the conflict zone. Twelve of these are believed to be imprisoned.Europeans comprise a fifth of around 10,000 Islamic State fighters held captive in Syria by Kurdish militias which are now under heavy attack by Turkish forces. If the militias redeploy prison guards to the front line, there is a risk of jail-breaks.
They are reluctant to try such foreign fighters at home, fearing a public backlash, difficulties in collating evidence against them, and the risk of renewed attacks by militants on European soil.