Public Prosecutor’s Office warns of a trend that has occurred in Europe. Families of Portuguese terrorist fighters in Syria and Iraq are no exception and can return to Portugal.
Claudia Oliveira Portoprosecutor at the Public Ministry, searches for suspected terrorism crimes at the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP). Quoted by , who captured her speech on , in a live training session at the Center for Judicial Studies, the specialist left some warnings.
Mentioned the Portuguese Islamic terrorists who joined the fight for the Islamic State in the Middle East and whose families (many had more than one wife and several children), now you can return to Portugalafter the dismantling of the caliphate, the Islamic government.
“When it was the height of the Islamic State caliphate, there were several European foreign terrorist fighters who moved to Syria and Iraq. With the dismantling of the caliphate, many of the children and women were placed in refugee camps in Syria“, explained the prosecutor.
“In recent years it has happened in other countries, and it will possibly happen in Portugal, we will have the return of these women and children and there are Portuguese minors and Portuguese women too”, he further warned.
The problem is that “the level of radicalization is not known” of these children, now young, and since “it is possible that in the near future return to Portugal“, it is necessary to be alert.
This is because “these children are victims, they have seen many traumas, they were born in the fields and at the time of the caliphate”, says Cláudia Oliveira Porto, who warns that, across Europe, radicalization occurs mainly among young people.
“The age of these radicalized young people is decreasing and there are cases in other countries, there are not many, but there are already several, who attack children under 16 years of age. Two-thirds of terrorist suspects in Western Europe are teenagers“, he states.
According to , the number of teenagers detained on terrorism charges is increasing in Europe.
Between March 2023 and March 2024, investigators told 470 legal cases.
“The number of civilians killed in Gaza, captured on camera, easily accessible to everyone and highlighting death and destruction, will also have an effect on children”, explains the expert Moustafa Ayad. “We know that this type of violent content it causes children to withdraw or become more aggressive.”
The prosecutor warns that “the platforms and social networks contribute to the spread of hate speech and radical ideologies. Terrorist organizations manipulate the algorithm so that teenagers are exposed to terrorist propaganda and thus recruit young people so that, in their name, they carry out violent acts that cause the terror that they later claim, they are the so-called “.
And let’s not just pay attention to big cities: “I have several suspects in the Azores and in the interior of the country. They are not organized, delinquent groups with no apparent occupation; we are talking about radicalized young people, aloneinside a room in front of a computer”, guarantees the prosecutor.
“It’s more of a diffuse network, where there are kids in their own online circles, in these communities, who want to be the influencers“, international expert Ayad told DW.
“Ideology continues to play an important role — this cannot be ignored — but meme-ification or the ‘Tik-Tok-ification’ of Islamic State content in shorter videos and on languages locations allows the idea to reach young people more easily”he assures.
And he warns: “It’s dark and brooding and, for lack of a better term, it has this new aspect of ‘jihadi cool’”.
