'Naïve' young jihadis who return from fighting for ISIS in Syria should be allowed 'space' to rejoin British society rather than face jail, says anti-terror watchdog

• Max Hill said was vital to help radicalised teenagers reintegrate back into society
• Revealed that thousands returning from Iraq and Syria have not been charged 
• Supporting a terrorist group such as Islamic State is a criminal offence in the UK 

Max Hill QC - seen outside the Old Bailey in June 2015 - said hundreds of Britons coming home after serving under the brutal terror group in Iraq and Syria have not been charged to avoid 'losing a generation' of young men

'Naive' teenagers who return to Britain after fighting for ISIS should be allowed to reintegrate rather than face prosecution, according to the anti-terror watchdog.

Max Hill QC said hundreds of Britons coming home after serving under the brutal terror group in Iraq and Syria have not been charged to avoid 'losing a generation' of young men.

Around half of the estimated 850 UK citizens who joined ISIS in the Middle East have since returned, according to official figures. 

Mr Hill, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, told BBC radio: 'The authorities have looked at them and looked at them hard and have decided that they do not justify prosecution, and really we should be looking towards reintegration and moving away from any notion that we are going to lose a generation due to this travel.

'It's not a decision that MI5 and others will have taken lightly.

'But they have left space, and I think they are right to do so, for those who travelled out of a sense of naivety, possibly with some brainwashing along the way, possibly in their mid-teens and who return in a state of utter disillusionment and we have to leave space for those individuals to be diverted away from the criminal courts.'

The comments came a day after EU Security Commissioner Julian King revealed that up to 8,000 foreign fighters may come back to Europe after the fall of Raqqa.

Experts say those who stayed are now likely to head for Turkey in the hope of travelling on to Europe to seek revenge for the destruction of the caliphate.

Tory MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown criticised Mr Hill's stance, saying: 'We should take a tough approach on this. 

'Protecting against any future terror attack must be the primary concern.' 

Supporting a terrorist group such as Islamic State is a criminal offence in the UK. 

Earlier this week the head of MI5 warned Britain is facing the biggest terror threat of his 34-year career. 

Andrew Parker said extremists are mounting deadly terror attacks with just a few days of planning as the UK sees a 'dramatic' jump in the scale and pace of the threat.

In his annual 'state of the union' assessment of the threat facing the UK, he said extremists are exploiting 'safe spaces' online, hindering intelligence efforts to root them out.

And he issued a fresh challenge to technology firms, saying they have an 'ethical responsibility' to help governments confront the threat.

His stark warning comes after Britain was hit by five terror attacks this year - killing dozens and injuring hundreds more.  .

PLATELL'S PEOPLE: It's madness to let jihadi terrorists come home unless it's at Her Majesty's Pleasure

MI5 boss Andrew Parker warned this week that Britain was facing an unprecedented terrorist threat, the worst he had seen in his 34-year career.

Already in 2017, we’ve suffered five attacks with 36 people dead and hundreds injured. 

Meanwhile, 20 attacks have been foiled in the past four years, seven of them in just the past four months.

As Parker put it, there is ‘more terrorist activity coming at us, more quickly’ than ever before and our intelligence services face an ‘intense challenge’ trying to keep us safe.

Yet despite this apocalyptic language, the head of our anti-terror watchdog has now declared that, far from facing prosecution, teenage jihadists returning from Iraq and Syria should be welcomed back.

Max Hill QC, independent reviewer of our terrorism laws, says: ‘We should be looking towards integration . . . for those who have travelled out of a sense of naivety, possibly with some brainwashing.’

I’m sorry, but isn’t it Mr Hill who’s suffering from stupefying naivety? Returning jihadists have been trained in terror camps to use bombs and firearms to kill and maim.

Hillary still just doesn't get it

Promoting her autobiography, Hillary Clinton says misogyny cost her the election and that she is aghast Americans put Donald Trump in her White House, despite his boasts about crudely molesting women. 

She still doesn’t get it, does she? 

This is a woman who stood by her man after he was accused of rape and sexual assault by three women, who turned a blind eye to his numerous affairs — and then trashed the reputation of the women involved. 

Talk about misogyny!

More pertinently, they’ve been indoctrinated to loathe the West and all we stand for.

Around 400 of the 850 British ISIS terrorists battle-hardened in Iraq and Syria have already returned here. And we can expect more — up to 8,000 are likely to return to Europe after the fall of Raqqa in Syria which ISIS considered its capital city.

The last thing our valiant but overstretched security services need is more jihadists to monitor on the streets. 

They already have 500 live investigations under way with 3,000 people suspected of extremist activities and say it’s not a question of if the next attack occurs, but when.

Meanwhile, terrorists’ modus operandi is changing: lone-wolf attacks with cars used as weapons, random knife attacks and bombs built with instructions from the internet — as in the case of the Islamist who slaughtered 22 in the Manchester Arena.

It takes just one of these returning ISIS fanatics to cause misery and carnage.

 The risk is simply too high.

They declared war on our country and our Allies. By doing so, they committed treason — a fate once punishable by death.

The only welcome they should receive if they return should be at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

The only way to deal with British ISIS fighters in Syria is to KILL them because they are a 'serious danger' to the UK, says aid minister Rory Stewart