Swedish city to offer returning Isis fighters housing and benefits in reintegration programme

A programme to rehabilitate former Isis fighters and other extremists with housing, employment, education and financial support is being trialled in Sweden.

Local authorities in the city of Lund say the controversial measures aim to reintegrate returned jihadis into society and prevent them reverting to their former networks.

Anna Sjöstrand, the municipal coordinator against violent extremism, acknowledged the proposals were controversial but argued that the same approach should be taken to Isis defectors as to those leaving organised crime and neo-Nazi groups.

“When this subject came up we thought: ‘Oh god, how should we handle this’,” she told national broadcaster Sveriges Radio.

“If you have committed a criminal act should take responsibility for it, but there are many aspects - one could for example look at it in terms of cost.

“It is much cheaper to reintegrate a person into society than to abandon them, for example.”

The approach pioneered in Lund is also reportedly being considered in the Swedish cities of Malmö, Borlänge and Örebro.

Around 140 Swedish foreign fighters are believed to have returned from Syria and Iraq, out of at least 300 who travelled to the region to join Islamist groups.