Foreign fighters are evading Europe’s security measures

Associated Press

BRUSSELS

When Ibrahim El Bakraoui blew himself up in the Brussels Airport check-in area, killing and maiming scores of travelers, it was at least the third time he had passed unimpeded through an airport terminal in recent months.

Suspected by Turkey of being a “foreign terrorist fighter” and known at home in Belgium as an ex-con wanted for parole violations, Bakraoui still was allowed to board a commercial airliner unaccompanied last summer, flying freely from Istanbul to the Netherlands and disappearing without a trace.

The ease with which he did so raises questions about how much governments know about the movements of returnees among the 5,000 home-grown jihadis who have trained and fought in places such as Syria or Iraq. Many now pose a “serious threat,” according to the police agency Europol. Some, such as Bakraoui, already have used their deadly skills in cities such as Brussels or Paris.

Testimony from government ministers, extracts of documents and conversations with police, border and aviation officials reveal a series of security gaps, misunderstandings and procedural red-tape that surrounded the deportation last July of this future suicide bomber.

Even those who take some responsibility for missing the threat Bakraoui posed find it hard to understand why his capture raised no alarms. This was a man picked up by Turkish authorities in Gaziantep near Syria, who had done jail time in Belgium for armed robbery, including shooting at police with a Kalashnikov.

“We are talking about someone with a 10-year conviction, who spent a few years in prison, then traveled via Turkey to the Syrian border,” Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said on March 25, as lawmakers probed for security shortfalls three days after the Brussels attacks left 32 people dead.

“You don’t have to have worked long on terrorism to conclude from all this that there is a very high probability – 90 percent, 99 percent, take your pick – that we are dealing with a foreign fighter,” he said.

Bakraoui may be just one case among many. Turkey has deported about 3,250 suspected “foreign terrorist fighters” since 2011 – a number that does not include those turned back before making it to Syria, according to its foreign ministry.

Turkey’s government says Belgium made no extradition request for Bakraoui when it learned June 26 that he was in Turkey, leaving him free to travel anywhere in Europe.

“It was obvious that he was affiliated and involved in the conflict zones, and he was wounded. That is the reason why he was deported. And this is the information that was communicated to Belgium,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told CNN in an interview aired Thursday.