Germany should amend law, allow surveillance of 'brainwashed' IS minors

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Germany should consider reviewing laws restricting the surveillance of minors to monitor the children of returning Islamic State (IS) fighters who pose a threat to the country, a German intelligence chief said on Wednesday.

Hans-Georg Maassen, head of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said he wanted the government to alter its laws to screen the children of IS fighters returning to the country as dangerous “sleeper agents.”

Maassen told Reuters that security officials in the country were preparing for the return of foreign fighters who joined the extremist group in Iraq and Syria, along with the possibility of “brainwashed” children.

According to analysts, about 1,000 foreign fighters had left Germany to fight alongside IS. Now that the group is militarily defeated in Iraq and Syria, authorities expect some members to return with their families.

So far, only a small percentage of the 290 toddlers and children who left Germany with their parents or were born in Iraq and Syria had returned, Maassen said.

“We see that children who grew up with [IS] were brainwashed in the schools and the kindergartens,” he said, adding Germany should review its law restricting the scrutiny of minors under 14-years-old.

“They were confronted early with IS ideology…learned to fight, and were in some cases forced to participate in the abuse [or killing] of prisoners,” the intelligence chief added.

The radicalization of minors has been a concern for German officials as three of the last five IS-claimed attacks in the country were carried out by minors.

Maassen said the extremist group continues to target youth on the internet through social media and other apps to try and radicalize or recruit them.

“We have to consider that these children could be living time bombs,” he noted. “There is a danger that these children come back brainwashed with a mission to carry out attacks.”