Countering Terrorist Recruitment of Central Asian Foreign Workers

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Counterterrorism (CT) announces a Notice of Funding Opportunity for projects that counter ISIS-K’s online radicalization and recruitment of Central Asian foreign workers, particularly Tajik and Uzbek speakers. ISIS-K uses sophisticated, multilingual online propaganda—including on social media, gaming platforms, and via generative AI—to target vulnerable labor migrants from Central Asia working abroad. This recruitment pipeline creates a persistent risk that seemingly localized radicalization abroad can translate into attacks on U.S. soil or against U.S. persons and assets in key transit hubs. This project is intended to advance early investigative interventions in this recruitment pipeline to close pathways that terrorists can use to move people, money, and operational guidance toward targets in the United States. Activities may include online peer engagement to address isolation among foreign workers; pre-departure and on-arrival consultations; digital literacy training; measures to strengthen trust between local law enforcement and communities to encourage reporting; enhancement of information-sharing platforms; enhanced digital forensics capabilities; and partnerships with experts and non-governmental organizations to identify and disrupt terrorist recruitment online, thereby reducing threats to the U.S. This project should also provide technical assistance to Central Asian law enforcement partners to improve their ability to identify and investigate digital evidence of terrorist recruitment efforts leading to counterterrorism prosecutions.