Denmark to Stop Paying Daesh Fighters ’Unemployment Benefits’
Local Editor
The Danish government said it will stop paying Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL' group] militants welfare benefits as part of a plan to fight terrorism.
More than 30 foreign fighters from the country are known to have continued to receive thousands of pounds worth of state unemployment benefit known as "kontanthjælp" in Syria and Iraq, with the revelations provoking outrage last month.
Employment minister Troels Lund Poulsen immediately vowed action and efforts to recover the payments, although it was unclear how the money could be reclaimed.
The government has now included a planned crackdown in a new bill to prevent extremism.
A statement from the justice ministry said: "The payment of state benefits to foreign fighters must be stopped, so they cannot finance their stay in a conflict zone with kontanthjælp, for example."
Anyone named as a national security risk or believed to have travelled to join armed group abroad will have their benefits immediately stopped, the government's plan said.
Søren Pape Poulsen, the justice minister, said he would not allow terrorista "to finance their travel using public money".
"We must prevent more vulnerable young people become radicalized and end up supporting terrorist organizations' vile ideology," he added.
Daesh fighters from several countries are believed to have used welfare payments after joining the terror group, either after being directly paid or supplied with the money by friends and family at home.
Denmark's four-point policy also includes criminalizing "the dissemination of terrorist propaganda", blocking websites distributing extremist material and requiring radicalized convicts to go through an "exit program" after being freed as a condition of their parole.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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