France repatriates women, children from Syrian camps

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - France on Tuesday repatriated women and children from camps in northeast Syria (Rojava), according to a statement from the French foreign ministry, the fourth since dropping the “case by case” approach.

“France today carried out a new operation to return to the national territory children and mothers who were in camps in northeastern Syria,” read the statement from the French foreign ministry.

“This operation allowed the return of 25 children and 10 adult women,” it added.

The statement added that the minors would be placed in social care, while the adults would be handed over to the relevant judicial authorities.

The women had voluntarily traveled to territories in Iraq and Syria that had been controlled by the Islamic State (ISIS) and were captured once the jihadist group was defeated in 2019. The repatriation of European nationals from the Syrian camps remains an issue. 

The latest repatriation by France marks the fourth since July last year when the country dropped the “case by case” approach, where it would repatriate individual cases, following international pressure and condemnations.

In July last year, France returned 35 children and 16 mothers from Syrian camps, followed by the repatriation of 40 children and 15 women from the notorious al-Hol camp in October.

In January, the French foreign ministry announced the repatriation of 15 women and 32 children from northeast Syria.

France did not specify which camp they were repatriated from but it thanked the Autonomous Administration of North East Syria (AANES), also known as the Rojava administration, for its cooperation.

Al-Hol camp in Syria’s Hasaka province where the families are kept has been called a ticking time bomb and a “breeding ground” for terrorism, with human rights groups warning of squalid conditions at the camp.

In June, the Rojava administration announced that it will put on trial foreign ISIS militants currently in its custody, citing the international community’s failure to establish a specialized court to handle these prosecutions and refusal of governments to repatriate their citizens as the main reasons behind their decision.