Since the mid-1990s, more than 200 people have been sentenced to more than 1,100 years in prison in six Western Balkans countries for terrorist acts, or for leaving to fight in a foreign war, according to BIRN analysis.

But their record of sentencing is uneven, and experts interviewed by BIRN say each country faces significant challenges in dealing with foreign fighters and their families who have returned, or are expected to return.

More than 160 fighters have been jailed for joining the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, part of a wave of foreign fighters from the Balkans that prompted Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro to outlaw such actions in 2014 and 2015. Kosovo and Serbia have sentenced the largest number of foreign fighters, while Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia have had the most convictions for domestic terrorism.

Albania has yet to convict any returning foreign fighter in the second instance. There have been no final verdicts for domestic terrorism in Montenegro, according to BIRN’s findings.