France brings back women and children held in camps in Syria
France has repatriated 25 children and 10 women who were
held in prison camps for suspected jihadists in north-east Syria, the fourth
such operation in a year, the foreign ministry has said.
The minors would be handed over to childcare services
while the adults would be handed over to the relevant judicial authorities, the
ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The French women had voluntarily gone to territories
across Syria and Iraq then controlled by Islamic State jihadists. They were
captured when the jihadist group was ousted from its self-declared “caliphate”
in 2019.
The return of family members of jihadist fighters who
were captured or killed has been a thorny issue for European countries,
particularly France, which has been targeted by jihadist attacks.
In France, any adult who went to the Iraq-Syria zone and
remained there is subject to legal proceedings. A year ago, France put an end
to its “case by case” approach to repatriation, which had drawn condemnation
from international bodies.
Sixteen women and 35 children were brought back to France
during the first repatriation operation a year ago, followed in October by the
return of 15 women and 40 children.
In January, the foreign ministry announced the
repatriation of 15 women and 32 children, a few days after being condemned by
the UN committee against torture, which said that in refusing to repatriate
women and minors in Syria, France was violating the UN convention against
torture and cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.
The foreign ministry said on Tuesday that “France thanked
the local administration in north-eastern Syria for its cooperation, which made
this operation possible”.
Until the summer of 2022, France had opted for targeted
repatriation, namely the return of orphans or minors whose mothers had agreed
to renounce their parental rights. Under this policy, only about 30 presumed
orphans had thus been repatriated by Paris, the last of which came at the start
of 2021.
