According to an internal list of the Federal Government in Syria, 84 supporters of the "Islamic State" (IS) were recently arrested with a German passport. One third of them are classified as a threat, 19 men and eight women. What happens to those who are imprisoned in Kurdish prisons in northern Syria? The military advance of Turkey against the Kurds makes the question acute.
A few days ago, the Kurdish armed forces declared that the fight against IS was completely suspended. How long will the Kurds still be able to control or secure the prisons? According to SPIEGEL information, at least four women from Germany have already escaped from a detention center in northern Syria.
Lower Saxony's SPD Interior Minister Boris Pistorius said in a recent SPIEGEL interview that Germany could not "shirk" its responsibility to take back its own citizens. It belongs "to the credibility of the German constitutional state that we convict offenders in a proper lawsuit here in Germany".
A representative survey by the opinion research institute Civey for SPIEGEL now shows that Germans are divided on this issue. Neither for nor against a return action of German IS fighters from Kurdish prisons a clear majority is emerging. Around 32 percent are very determined - yes, definitely - to return home, while 37 percent say: "No, definitely not."
US President Donald Trump put pressure on Germany and other EU countries at the beginning of the year to demand that they withdraw more than 800 IS fighters. Most countries had refused. From Germany it was said that the citizenship must first be properly clarified, but this is currently not possible. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) said it was not so easy "as you would imagine in America".
In July, the Berlin administrative court ruled that the federal government must retrieve members of IS fighters, so in August came for the first time four children from northern Syria to Germany.
The SPIEGEL survey also breaks down the differences according to party preference. Thus, a majority of the SPD, Left and Green supporters for the admission of imprisoned IS fighters in Germany.
In the followers of the CDU, CSU and FDP shows an opposing opinion. Potential AFD voters overwhelmingly oppose the return of IS fighters. A significant east-west difference can not be determined.
