On Tuesday, France returned 10 women and 25 children who were being held in jihadist detention camps in northeastern Syria, in the fourth mass operation of its kind within a year. According to the PNAT National Prosecutor’s Office, three adult women, who have been subject to an arrest warrant, will be brought before a judge during the day. Seven others were taken into police custody pursuant to a search warrant. This is also the case for a 17-year-old minor.
Minors are handed over to the departments responsible for childcare. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release that he will be subject to medical and social control.
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These French women had gone voluntarily to the areas controlled by jihadist groups in the Iraqi-Syrian region. Then they were captured when the Islamic State (ISIS) fell in 2019.
Any adult who joins the Iraqi-Syrian region and remains there is subject to legal procedures.
End of the “case by case” policy
Just a year ago, France put an end to the policy “case after case”which has been condemned by international bodies and blamed by French advisory bodies.
Along with many women of different nationalities, these French women live in the Kurdish-controlled camps of Al-Hol and Roj, where violence is rampant and deprivation is heightened.
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Children of jihadists in the hell of al-Hol camp
With this, a total of 16 women and 35 children were returned to France during the first mass operation a year ago, followed in October by the return of 15 women and 40 children. In January, France then announced the return of 15 women and 32 children, just days after they were condemned by the UN Committee Against Torture.
Al-Hol is the worst camp in the world.
The issue of their repatriation is a sensitive issue in many countries, especially in France, a country that has been hit by jihadist attacks, especially in 2015, provoked by the Islamic State.
Therefore, France chose until the summer of 2022 targeted repatriation, that is, the return of orphaned children or minors whose mothers agreed to give up their parental rights. Thus, Paris returned only about thirty children who were supposed to be orphans, and the last of them was at the beginning of 2021.
Like France, and despite repeated warnings from the Syrian Kurds, many Western countries have long refused to return their citizens from the camps in northeastern Syria, contenting themselves with returning to their countries for fear of possible terrorist acts on their lands. floor.
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‘We’re trying to make them ghosts’: ‘Guantanamo’ horror for French children in Syria
In early March, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, called for the return of the families detained in the Al-Hol camp in Syria, describing it as “The worst camp in the world” Home to thousands of foreign nationals.
The French Ministry was unable to determine the number of French women and children still being held in Syria. “A hundred children remain in these camps, who only know mud, barbed wire and violence.”Said Tuesday MH Marie Doucet, attorney for families of women and children held in camps in northeastern Syria.
A source familiar with the matter told AFP in May that Only a few women are still asking to be repatriated.. the others “don’t want to go back”This has been explained by the source who specifies it as approximate 80 in this case. Which is not without raising the issue of the possibility of repatriating their children when they are mothers.
Another homecoming?
According to the United Families gathering, representatives of the French government visited Camp Rouge in May, where they met “All French women”. they I asked them whether or not they agreed to return with their children during the return home […] Described as “the last”.
sequel after announcement
Also read> Jihadists: After the “return” and “outgoing”, France faces the “colossal”
Collective denouncing the living conditions “contradicts respect for human dignity”urging the government to take “From now on, all necessary measures are taken to return all French children detained in Syria and their mothers.”.
