Tunisia overwhelmed, divided over returning extremists
KELIBIA, Tunisia — Tunisia’s unhappy distinction as one of the world’s primary jihadi exporters is coming home to haunt the country, where young men trained by the Islamic State group have killed tourists, soldiers and even an unfortunate shepherd.
As the extremists suffer one battlefield defeat after another, Tunisia is being torn by a furious debate over what to do with returnees from among the 3,000 to 6,000 who left — and how to determine what threat they pose.
“These are people who were indoctrinated. These are people who left and who destroyed their Tunisian passports and who announced that they belonged to the nation of Daesh,” or IS, protest movement leader Boutheina Chihi Ezzine said.
Tunisia prisons are full, its courts are backlogged with terrorism cases, and its desert borders are porous. It also was the only country to emerge from the 2011 Arab Spring with a functioning democracy and is not on the Trump administration’s banned travel list.