France repatriates 10 children from Syrian camps

The cases included those brought back on humanitarian grounds as well as orphans

Women displaced from Syria's north-eastern Deir Ezzor province walk in a market inside Al Hol camp. AFP

Ten French children are being repatriated from displacement camps in north-east Syria, the French foreign ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said they are provided medical and social care but gave few details of the cases or how the repatriation took place.

“France today proceeded to return 10 young French minors, orphans and humanitarian cases who were in camps in north-east Syria,” the ministry said.

The ministry thanked officials in north-east Syria for their help in the operation.

Thousands of foreign nationals who travelled to Syria to join ISIS remain in Kurdish run displacement camps in north-east Syria after the end of the battle in 2019. Few have been allowed to return home with many – including France – arguing that they should face prosecution in Syria and Iraq if they committed crimes there.

France said the decision to bring the 10 children back was due to the circumstances of the case.

“The decision was taken in view of the situation of these particularly vulnerable young children and within the framework of the authorisations given by local officials,” the ministry said.

Rights groups have urged governments around the world to allow children to be brought home as they argue that minors cannot be held responsible for the actions of their parents.

France has now repatriated only 28 children since the fall of ISIS’s so-called caliphate around the town of Baghouz in Deir Ezzor province. Five were brought back in March 2019, 12 in June 2019 and a girl suffering from a heart defect in April.

Le Monde reported that several families say they believe at least 300 children of the French men and women who joined ISIS remain in north-east Syria.

Kurdish authorities are holding tens of thousands of women and children in detention in Al Hol, Roj and other camps in north-east Syria.

A large number of the people detained in the camps fled the final battle to defeat ISIS. Men are held in overcrowded jails.

Kurdish authorities regularly request international support to secure and provide for the detainees and call on countries to take back their nationals to ease the burden on authorities.

Officials in the West have warned that they may struggle to convict those who travelled to join the group in courts at home where the burden of proof is higher, and evidence is more difficult to present. Many European countries also lack laws that cover the actions of citizens undertaken overseas as a member of a terrorist group.

The question over the fate of children either taken with families or born in Syria and Iraq during the terrorist group’s brutal rule is largely unresolved. Some countries, including Bosnia, have repatriated some women and children. Others, however, remain stuck in Kurdish detention.

Conditions in Al Hol and elsewhere are dire.

The Kurdish Red Crescent told AFP that last year, 517 people, including 371 children, died in Al Hol camp alone.

Since they were rounded up in March 2019, several foreign fighters and ISIS members have managed to escape Kurdish custody, especially after Turkey invaded northern Syria last year and fought against Kurdish forces.