ABSTRACT
Belgium has the highest number of foreign fighters per capita in Western Europe (Colaert, 2017; Van Ostaeyen en Van Vlierden, 2018). It is closely followed by The Netherlands, which produced over 300 foreign fighters. With the so-called Caliphate defeated, many foreign fighters have surrendered or have already returned home. Belgium has over 130 returnees (Segers, 2019) and The Netherlands 60 (AIVD, 2019). The question of what to do with these foreign fighters has sparked heated political and societal debate varying from sentencing (to death) in Iraq and Syria to prosecuting them in The Netherlands and Belgium and offering exit progammes. Such programmes are often a combination of interventions aimed at changing extremist beliefs (deradicalisation) or dissuading from violent extremist action (disengagement) (Horgan & Braddock, 2010). These programmes have become of particular importance in Belgium and The Netherlands as these countries are not only confronted with the terrorist threat of returnees, some of whom were responsible for (foiled) terrorist attacks, but are also dealing with an increase in home-grown violent extremism due to the fact that the Caliphate has been defeated and because extremist right-wing organisations are on the rise again (NCTV, 2019; Segers, 2019).
