The fate of Islamist fighters continues to vex our authorities

What to do with returning jihadi fighters is a problem that won’t easily go away. With the collapse of the Islamic State, security services and counter-terrorism police have raised their concerns about battle-hardened Islamist fighters coming back to the UK.

Aine Davis, having completed a prison sentence in Turkey for being a senior member of the terrorist group, epitomises those fears.

Ministers have tried to strip Britons of their citizenship to prevent their return. The latest official figures, published in March, show that in two years to December 31 2020, 37 people were deprived of their British citizenship on the basis that to do so was “conducive to the public good”.

The most prominent has been Shamima Begum, the one-time school girl, who fled to Syria to join Islamic State in 2015 at the age of just 15 along with two teenage friends, both of whom were later killed.

Judges in the highest court effectively ruled against Begum, concluding she could not return to the UK to appeal the decision, leaving her in no man’s land, unable to get back to Britain to fight her case.

Aine Davis has avoided that fate. It is unclear why he has been allowed to remain a UK citizen and the Home Office will never discuss, openly at least, specific cases outside of the court. There is a greater claim for Davis to have his UK nationality revoked. He is a hardeneded fighter, linked even to Jihadi John’s execution squad, and has a terrorist conviction. But unlike Begum and others in camps, he has been in a Turkish jail and the government in Ankara wants rid.

Two surviving members of “the Beatles” gang – El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey – were stripped of their UK citizenship and sent to the US to face justice. Davis will likely be placed under a Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measure (commonly known as a Tpim), put under curfew and tagged. But he will be free to walk the streets. Ministers will hold their breath.