A/HRC/42/42/Add.2 Returnees 57. The Working Group was informed of various cases of Austrians who wanted to return to Austria but were unable to do so as they were stuck in detention facilities in Iraq or the Syrian Arab Republic or within a conflict zone. Individuals wanted to return for various reasons. Some were disillusioned or remorseful; some were still driven by their ideology but wanted better living conditions; some were being sent to carry out an attack in their country or region of origin; and some had been captured or returned unwillingly. Some interlocutors working on the foreign fighter issue were often contacted by parents and relatives seeking assistance with the return of their loved ones. Foreign fighters who managed to escape from conflict zones and to make contact with their consular offices were reportedly not able to return. Government authorities were said to have little desire to assist in bringing these individuals home due to their perceived threat as returnees. 58. In this connection, the Working Group expressed its concerns about the revocation of citizenship for those categorized as foreign fighters and charged under section 278 of the Penal Code. The Government noted that this measure was applied on a case-by-case basis and concerned those who possessed dual citizenship in order to avoid statelessness. However, there are still implications with citizenship revocation, as it tends to stigmatize immigrants and their descendants and to perpetrate the unequal treatment of minorities, particularly Muslims.15 The Working Group reiterates that the right to citizenship should not be taken away when to do so would render an individual stateless. 59. While many concerns related to returnees who posed a risk of further harm, there were also cases where returnees were contributing constructively to deradicalization efforts. Those who had been successfully rehabilitated and reintegrated were few in number, however, as many returnees were imprisoned and had not been fully assessed as fit for release or to participate in rehabilitation programmes. Successfully rehabilitated returnees provided the most effective counter-narratives, as they were perceived to have greater legitimacy than other sources of information, they were able to explain the realities of fighting and they could convey important messages for shifting people’s mindsets about ideologies or religious beliefs supporting violent extremism. 60. The Working Group was informed of an Austrian national known as Oliver N, who joined ISIL. At 15 years of age, he travelled to the Syrian Arab Republic, where he joined young fighters from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Mexico and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He later left ISIL to return home after witnessing the brutality of the armed group in the conflict zone. He spent 20 months in prison, wrote a book about his experience and was now actively working with deradicalization programmes and assisting with the reintegration of former radicalized Islamists back into society. 61. The general and common approaches to returnees have involved criminal prosecutions and imprisonment. Many of these individuals have witnessed extreme violence in the conflict zone, and have most likely suffered from psychological problems including post-traumatic stress disorders. Such problems can manifest themselves in aggression and violence if they are not dealt with, if there has been no successful rehabilitation or if deradicalization efforts have not been made for the returnee. Indeed, these individuals can pose a threat to national security, as has been demonstrated by terrorist attacks in the region. The Working Group notes the need to make tailored and individual assessments of returnee cases in order to prevent the further radicalization of individuals in prisons and to encourage the rehabilitation and reintegration of individuals who have successfully completed deradicalization programmes. 62. As one interlocutor mentioned, the persons at risk of further radicalization and violent extremism were likely to be those who had been intercepted when travelling and were now incarcerated. These individuals had clear intentions to travel into conflict zones and needed to be assessed for the purpose of deradicalization. Furthermore, there was a 15 Meghan Benton and Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, “Foreign fighters: will revoking citizenship mitigate the threat?” Migration Information Source (April 2019). 11