The two jihadists – originally from Geneva and Lausanne – have been missing since a rescue attack was launched in January by the Islamic State (IS) group on the jail in the Kurdish-controlled region of Syria where they had been held.
A third Swiss-originated fighter is seemingly still accounted for in detention, Swiss public broadcaster, SRF, reported on Wednesday.
The foreign ministry told SRF that they had some leads about where the missing pair might be, but that the intelligence was contradictory. As such, there is “no definite information” about their whereabouts, Consular Director Johannes Matyassy said.
Matyassy said authorities had taken all possible measures to ensure that the men do not return to Switzerland undetected. He did not specify what the measures were. SRF says it includes listing them on a wanted-list across the European Union’s border-free Schengen area, to which Switzerland is affiliated.
No repatriations
In March 2019 the Swiss government decided on a strategy of not actively repatriating adult jihad fighters from Syria and Iraq, claiming motives of national security.
Authorities said the strategy was to prioritise legal proceedings in the countries where the jihadists had committed their crimes. Children can be repatriated in certain cases, such as the two half-sisters brought back to Geneva last year after having been taken by their mother to Syria in 2016.
Dual nationals who leave to fight for IS can meanwhile be stripped of their Swiss citizenship.
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Swiss revoke mother’s citizenship over suspected Islamic State links
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Switzerland slammed for abandoning two minors in Syria
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Switzerland is under pressure to repatriate two young Swiss girls living in a makeshift camp established in northeast Syria after the fall of the Islamic State group (ISIS). The United Nations human rights experts issued a statement on Thursday urging Switzerland to bring back two half-sisters, aged 8 and 14, who were allegedly abducted by…
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