Leaked documents from the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs show that the government has planned to fly Islamic State extremists and their children back to Finland.
The document is dated from last month and states that the ministry has set up a group to look into chartering flights for Islamic State members currently in Syria’s al-Hol prison camp, flying them to Iraq and then to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, Yle reports.
According to the document’s timetable, the chartered flights were supposed to take place this week and were aimed primarily at importing children of Islamic State members — but the plan also states that “all persons who agree to return” could be included in the operation.
The document states that the operation will be led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and will end once the returnees are back in Finnish territory. Any police action taken towards the returning fighters listed in the document is to be planned separately.
The document is also signed by Seppo Kolehmainen, Chief of Police, despite his earlier denials that he had seen any plans to return Islamic State members to Finland.
Whether or not the plan will be or has been enacted under the new millennial generation, female-led government remains unclear, although the Minister of Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto has remained in position following the changes.
The new government, headed by leftist Social Democrat Prime Minister Sanna Marin, is expected to take the country in a leftward direction.
Countries across Scandinavia have taken far different approaches to Islamic State members wanting to return to Europe. Denmark has recently begun stripping some Islamic State members of their Danish citizenship after passing a law allowing the government to do so earlier in the year.
Sweden, meanwhile, has had a much longer policy of allowing Islamic State members to return — even allowing a fighter to return to the country for medical treatment and then leave again for the Middle East to resume fighting.