AP

Two male Belgian jihadi escaped from Kurdish Prison in Syria

Another two Belgian jihadi have escaped from a Kurdish prison in Northern Syria. Both of the escapees are male. This brings the total number of Belgian jihadi to have escaped from Kurdish custody to 5 adults. On Sunday 3 Belgian women prisoners escaped from the prison camp with their 6 children. The news that now two Belgian men have escaped comes from the Head of the threat analysis organ OCAD, Paul Van Tigchelt. Mr Van Tigchelt was speaking before the Federal Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee. He reassured MP that “It is not very probable they could reach the European mainland unchecked and unnoticed”. 

However, despite them returning undetected being “highly improbable”, Mr Van Tigchelt added that it “is not completely impossible”.  He also stressed the importance of the deal on migrants that the EU has with Turkey and the importance of the terms of the deal remaining in force. President Erdogan has already threatened to revoke on the deal as a result of the reaction of EU countries to Turkey’s military intervention in northern Syria.

He also warned against taring all those currently in Syria with the same brush. While some are hardliners and pose a danger to society others just tagged along or while initially being in favour of the Caliphate, have since recognised the error of the ways.       

Paul Van Tigchelt says that there are currently 55 Foreign Terrorist Fighters in the conflict zone in northern Syria, some of whom are Belgian nationals, other have ties with our country. 

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