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UK Considers Re-Entry Ban For British ISIS Fighters

REUTERS/Phil Noble

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Jacob Bojesson Foreign Correspondent
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British authorities are considering a re-entry ban for jihadis who travelled to fight for terrorist groups abroad.

Temporary exclusion orders (TEOs) were introduced in 2015 to give security services a tool to block British citizens from returning to the country. The power has only been used once before, Home Secretary Amber Rudd revealed Monday, despite the return of around 350 Islamic State fighters in recent years.

“They’re a tool which the law enforcement wanted. We gave them that tool, they’ve just started to use them. They found a case where it was necessary,” she told the “Today” show on BBC Radio 4, according to The Guardian. “The important thing is that government gives the security services the tools that are necessary to keep us safe. The numbers may be small but it only takes one [jihadist] to do the sort of damage we saw last week.”

More TEOs are currently under consideration, but “no more than four or five,” The Times reports. A majority of Britons, 55 percent, support a re-entry ban for jihadis, according to a YouGov poll released Friday.

Blocking people from their country of citizenship is often a complex process.

Australia passed the Allegiance to Australia Act in 2015, which allows the government to strip the citizenship of dual-citizens who are suspected or convicted of engaging in militant acts or joining a banned organization. (RELATED: In Landmark Move, Australia Strips Citizenship From ISIS Terrorist)

Germany moved to deport two terror suspects born in the country in a first of its kind case in March. The duo — a 27-year-old Algerian and a 22-year-old Nigerian — will be sent to their parents’ home countries. (RELATED: Germany Deports Homegrown Terror Suspects In Landmark Case)

“We are sending a clear warning to all fanatics nationwide that we will not give them a centimeter of space to carry out their despicable plans,” Boris Pistorius, Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister, said after the ruling, according to Deutsche Welle. “They will face the full force of the law regardless of whether they were born here or not.”

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