Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/PARIS: The French foreign ministry said on Tuesday that France repatriated 32 children and 15 women held in jihadist prison camps in northeastern Syria.
The ministry said that the minors were handed over to the services in charge of child assistance and could be subject to medical and social monitoring.
It added that the adults had been handed over to the judicial authorities.
Over the previous decade, thousands of extremists in Europe traveled to Syria to become fighters with the Daesh group, often taking their families to live in the self-declared “caliphate” it established in the territory seized in Iraq and Syria.
France Repatriates children and women
Since the “ISIS caliphate” fell in 2019, the return of family members of fighters who were captured or killed had been a grueling issue for European countries.
The return announced Tuesday, committed due to humanitarian organizations’ pressure, is France’s third large-scale repatriation.
The previous one was last October when the country repatriated 15 women and 40 children, and later in July when 16 mothers and 35 minors were returned.
The children and women repatriated on Tuesday were in the Roj camp in northeast Syria under the Kurdish administration, located about 15 kilometers from the Iraqi and Turkish borders.
The French high-ups thanked the northeastern Syria administration for the cooperation, which made this operation possible.”
Tuesday’s operation comes shortly after the United Nations Committee against Torture condemned France for failing to repatriate French nationals from prison camps in northeastern Syria.
