Experts are warning that ISIS-K is preparing to exploit the refugee wave created by the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan to infiltrate terrorists into the west in a repeat of what happened following the previous migrant surge in 2015.
While authorities are attempting to vet the thousands of Afghans entering western countries by holding them in interim countries like the UAE while checks are performed, many don’t have identity papers or have faked them.
“It is to be expected al-Qaeda or Daesh-based Afghanistan would have tried and have some of their members obtain access onto the flights leaving Afghanistan to Europe and the counter-terrorism authorities will be aware of this,” said Dr David Lowe, a senior research fellow at Leeds Beckett University Law School and head of a consultancy business in terrorism and security.
However, according to counter-terrorism expert David Otto, determined jihadists could still slip through the net and there is “little that is being done” to protect Europe from ISIS-K sleeper cells.
“Europe and the West are at high risk of terrorist attack from individuals who have sneaked themselves into the country posing as affiliated to the US,” said Otto.
Dr Jassim Mohamad, head of the European Centre for Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence Studies in Bonn, also pointed out that even if an individual is determined to be a threat, countries such as Germany are forbidden by law from sending them back to Afghanistan.
“Dangerous persons may be subjected to supervision, but none of them will be imprisoned, and residency status may remain temporary or limited,” said Mohamad.
“[One] can only rely on documents and previous records,” said Otto. “With the collapse of the Afghanistan government there has been concerns of people faking documents to make it through. This is one of the reasons the US has taken steps to process individuals from third party countries to control the risk. Despite these measures, groups like ISIS-K and al-Qaeda will encourage its sympathisers to beat the system”.
Following the previous refugee crisis, when over a million mostly economic migrants entered Europe, ISIS bragged about how it had exploited porous borders to sneak jihadists into the west.
This led directly to multiple mass casualty terror attacks, including the Paris massacre.
The Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi was also rescued from Libya as a “refugee” by the British Royal Navy.
As we previously highlighted, observers are expecting large numbers of people to continue to leave Afghanistan, with one diplomat warning “not even tanks” can stop them.
A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies also warned that the 2021 Afghan refugee crisis could make the 2015 refugee crisis look like a “geopolitical walk in the park” in comparison.
Over a thousand boat migrants arrived in England yesterday alone, many of whom originated in Afghanistan.
While the media laboriously focuses on the odd baby or child who arrives with the group, the vast majority of arrivals continue to be fighting age young men.
Nobody knows who they are, most of them don’t have papers, and they are just allowed into the country and put up at taxpayer expense in 4 star hotels.
Once saw a photographer in Dover put his camera down and walk away while a load of migrants were coming in. I asked why he wasn't photographing it, he told me: "they're all men, the papers only buy the pictures if there are women or children onboard." https://t.co/JtYQNYYFAK
— Benjamin Loughnane (@Loknayn) September 6, 2021
Story cited here.
