ISIS is seeking to bolster its ranks with unaccompanied child refugees, whom they seek to recruit after paying their smugglers’ fees, according to an anti-extremism think-tank.
The terror group is offering up to $2,000 for each child along migration routes to Europe—as well as in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, where millions of Syrians have fled the lengthy civil war, according to the London-based Quilliam Foundation.
“Children and young people who are recruited and trafficked by ISIS are an important resource, as they allow the group to convey a sense of future for itself as a state,” according to Quilliam.
The youngsters, whom the extremists believe are easy to radicalize, are then shipped off to commit terror attacks or be employed as frontline “cubs of the Caliphate” in ISIS’ self-declared state in Iraq and Syria.
Some refugees pay smugglers up to $560 for passage to the Mediterranean coast. ISIS jumps in by offering them free passage and up to $1,000 to join the group.It also provides the underage asylum-seekers with cash and food.
“That’s actually incredibly effective when a young person has been separated from their family and they’re just trying to get by day to day. ISIS are able to fill those basic services,” Nikita Malik, a senior researcher at Quilliam and co-author of the report, told The Independent of the UK.
An analysis of ISIS propaganda suggests an “overwhelming” obsession with youth, Malik added.
Quilliam created a database of propaganda used by ISIS, as well as by the Taliban, al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab and Boko Haram.
The most dominant theme in propaganda was “preaching,” or calls from fighters urging refugees to wage jihad. Using “negative grievances,” the groups warn about the consequences of leaving.
More than 340 unaccompanied children went missing between January and September of 2015 and 132 remained missing at the end of 2015, according to the report.
“Some run away for the fear of not being granted asylum, others fall victim to abduction, trafficking, sexual and economic exploitation and extremist groups,” Quilliam reported. “The risks of radicalization begin in early recruitment strategies preying on short-term vulnerabilities and immediate needs of those trapped in conflict zones, and persist into the journey itself.”
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