Officers from the elite GIGN unit of France’s gendarmes military police will patrol train services during the summer weeks to counter the ongoing threat of terrorism in the country.

The so-called “train marshalls” are named after America’s Air Marshalls, the officers stationed onboard flights in the US. The officres will be armed but dressed in plain clothes.

Their job will be to look out for anyone acting suspiciously and to intervene if needs be, although passengers are unlikely to notice them.

The measure to be deploy the elite officers on trains came about after the attempted terror attack on the high speed Thalys train between Amsterdam and Paris in August 2015.

The marshalls have already taken up their posts after France’s summer holidays began last weekend.

Gendarmerie chief Lt Col. Benoit Terrier said the aim of the officers was to thwart any terror attack at the earliest possible opportunity.

“The marshalls will engage as soon as a person is physically threatened or the train faces a threat that would cause an accident and a serious incident,” he said.

SNCF security staff, who know the terrain, will also provide back up to the armed gendarmes.

The marshalls have already undergone months of training to prepare for all the possible scenarios.

One officer named Mathieu told France Info he had already been on around 20 train journeys posing as an ordinary passenger.

“The objective is really to blend in and not be detected,” he said.

“We might get our phones out or a book, or talk to the passengers around us. We will dress and behave differently depending on what train we are on.

“If you take a train at 8 in the morning, filled with businessmen or engineers, we will dress in a certain way, we will behave in a different way than if we take a train full of returning holidaymakers, which will be filled with 80 percent students. It’s about being adaptable.”

The group, aged between 15 and 25, including 3 women, were detained following the assault in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Police did not give the names or nationalities of the suspects, but German daily Welt had reported that all involved are Syrians.

Police said the victim had approached the group in a park to borrow a lighter, but his cigarette was snatched away.

The 25-year-old was wearing a chain with a star of David, which police said was ripped from the victim’s neck by one of the men, while spewing “anti-Semitic insults.”

The attacker allegedly repeatedly punched the victim in the face, before fleeing.

The victim was treated in a hospital after suffering cuts to the head.

Police added that the 3 female suspects aged 15 to 21 and 7 men aged 17 to 25 were subsequently released, but that a special branch of investigators dealing with politically motivated crimes have taken over the case.

Germany was shocked by a case of antisemitism in April involving a Syrian migrant who lashed out with his belt at an Israeli man wearing a Jewish kippa skullcap.

The attack was the latest to raise alarm bells about renewed antisemitism in Germany from both the far-right and a large influx of predominantly Muslim asylum seekers since 2015.

The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party, which captured nearly 13% of the vote in the general election in September, has broken a taboo by repeatedly challenging Germany’s “remembrance culture” and atonement for the Nazi era.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking with Israeli television, had also denounced the emergence of “another form of antisemitism” beyond that of right-wing extremist groups, from Muslim refugees.

It is not known how many of those remaining are still alive, or in detention, but observers say there are several hundred detainees in Iraq and Syrian Kurdish regions.

Europol’s recent Terrorism Situation and Trend Report [TE-SAT] warns that a particularly strong security threat is posed by individuals who have received prolonged ideological indoctrination, military training in the use of weapons and explosives, or have gained combat experience during their stay in a conflict region.

They may also have established links to other FTFs abroad and become part of capable transnational networks.

These returning fighters will have increased proficiency in terms of carrying out attacks, will be more brutalised and prone to violence, will have developed a high degree of security awareness, and some will perpetuate the terrorist threat to the EU through radicalising, fundraising and facilitation activities.

While the first groups of returnees were often disappointed with their situation in the ‘caliphate’ and decided to return home, Europol adds, the returnees of already defeated IS will have other motivations.

According to TE-SAT the subsequent activities of the returnees have been diverse.

They range from reduced involvement in the extremist milieu (even to the point where such activities no longer exist), to persons prone to violence.

However, some countries suggested that a disposition to extremist ideology is likely to prevail, which allows the returnee’s mobilisation at short notice. And in the light of the horrible terrorist attacks Europe faced in recent years, it is no wonder that governments are extremely reserved about bringing FTF’s back home.

None of EU member states has actively engaged in the process of bringing back citizens detained abroad. Moreover, there have been numerous statements of official figures that contradict everything Europe nominally stands for as far as human rights are concerned, but nevertheless probably reflect the general feeling among EU’s population.

French Defence Minister Florence Parly said loud and clear that “if the jihadists perish in this fight, I would say that’s for the best.”

UK’s junior foreign minister Rory Stewart was on the same lines, telling BBC that there was only one way to neutralise British IS fighters.

“Unfortunately, the only way of dealing with them will be, in almost every case, to kill them.”

State groups in Syria reportedly have tacit instructions on dealing with the foreigners who joined the extremist group – Kill them on the battlefield and the message for months has been ‘Ideally, no prisoners’.

French media even reported on the deployment of French Special Forces with orders to eliminate French IS fighters before they were captured or able to return home.

In fact, UK and France have no intention to take their citizens back, while the position of Germany remains unclear.

The British are simply revoking FTF’s citizenships wherever legally possible. It seems that for European leaders the most welcome solution would be to hand over responsibility for prosecuting the extremists and their followers to the Iraqi, Syrian or Kurdish judicial system.

However, in most cases of active fighters that would mean a death penalty, which EU has been very vocal against everywhere else in the world.

On the other hand, there is a legitimate concern that in many cases, there would be inadequate evidence to secure a conviction in Europe.

But many captured extremists could walk free anyway, since the Syrian Kurds are struggling to keep their IS prisoners under guard and could also use them as leverage for their political goals. So, there is always a possibility that the prisoners will be released at some point.

But it is not just adult men in the detention camps, there are also women and children who followed their husbands and fathers or were born during the caliphate. And while EU countries say they will bring back children up to the age of 10, the public pleads to let the families come back that some of FTF’s wives have made, have gone unanswered.

In Germany at least, even children are being regarded as a security threat.

“We consider the return to Germany of jihadists’ children, indoctrinated in a warzone, to be dangerous,” German intelligence chief Hans-Georg Massen warned. “This could allow a new generation of jihadists to be raised here.”

Different approaches to deradicalisation and reintegration

For those who did make it back to Europe, numerous reform programs have been developed. Often, they aim to do more than challenge ideological interpretations by helping in other areas such as schooling, employment, housing, social relations, and psychological welfare.

Dutch initiative called EXIT, for example, focuses on returnees that decide to participate on a voluntary basis, whereas the Danish Aarhus programme focuses solely on returning FTFs who are not being prosecuted for criminal charges.

The latter connects police, state welfare services, and community organisations in providing a range of services to individuals returning from Syria.

Similar initiatives are being introduced in Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and other European countries.

A recent study by the Brussels-based Egmont Institute has assessed the still evolving policies in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Early on, returnees were not systematically prosecuted, let alone convicted, primarily because the criminal code simply did not cover this kind of circumstances. Women were as a general rule not prosecuted.

Since then legislation changes have been adopted throughout Europe and now returnees are arrested and put on trial, with no distinction made between men and women.

Once a returnee is in prison, Belgium prefers a regime of dispersal among the general prison population, while the Netherlands places both, suspects of terrorism-related crimes, as well as convicted terrorists, in a high-security detention centre.

All three countries developed personalised approach that aims to change individuals’ views of violent actions rather than changing their thinking and ideology per se.

Upon release, the three countries have different approaches to reintegration. In the Netherlands, tailor-made accompaniment is available for former convicts to help them get on with their lives. Decisions are made by local authorities and the Dutch Probation Service.

Germany has been implementing a project known as HAYAT since 2012, trying to rehabilitate and reintegrate returned foreign fighters into the German society whenever possible.

The methodology is threefold – it aims to encourage the foreign fighters to abandon the extremist ideology and to refuse violence; to assist returned foreign terrorist fighters in finding employment, and to restore emotional empathy between the returned fighter and their family of origin.

Michiel Schoenmakers, a spokesperson for Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, told The New Arab that scarcely any returnees have succeeded in leaving the conflict zone in Syria and Iraq and reaching the Netherlands.

As of March 1, 2018, around 300 Dutch people have travelled to Syria and Iraq, approximately 75 of whom have been killed. Of the rest, around 50 extremists have returned to the Netherlands.

Returnees are detected as early as possible, Schoenmakers says, to minimise their potential threat. Every returnee is arrested for questioning and is prosecuted based on the criminal investigation.

France, on the other hand, has been completely unsuccessful in its reforming efforts. Only one of the planned 12 deradicalisation centres has been opened after years of delays, and even that one sits empty.

The idea behind Centres for Prevention, Integration and Citizenship as they are officially called, was to impose rigorous routines on those they housed, as well as to subject them to intense courses in French history and philosophy.

Furthermore, an assessment is made of the threat that is posed by each returnee. Returnees are also subject of discussion between all relevant parties on a local level in their municipality of origin. Here it is decided whether any interventions are needed, and which interventions are best suited to minimise the potential threat from a returnee.

As far as children are concerned, all three countries start from the same premise, that children are victims and not criminals.

However, since six-year-olds will have been exposed to extremist indoctrination and nine-years-old will have received military training, a security component is often a part of the programme, especially in the case of teenagers and tailor-made accompaniment is standard practice.

The Belgian government has been explicit that children under 10 years old should be repatriated, if possible, and put under childcare provisions, while children above 10 will be treated on a case-by-case basis.

Germany has no official policy yet, but seems to be leaning in the same direction, whereas the topic is only now emerging in the Netherlands, Egmont’s paper noted.

Only time will tell, how successful the reintegration programmes have been or indeed can be.

For as long as push factors, such as isolation, marginalisation, polarisation, and the stigmatisation of Islam, stay in place, the genesis of new embryo of radicalisation, whether it be al-Qaeda, IS or something new, is almost guaranteed.