Finland repatriates a family with links to ISIS from Syria’s Hawl Camp

QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs repatriated yesterday a family of five members from Hawl Camp in northeast Syria.

Hawl Camp houses about 15,650 families with total of 57,516 individuals including 8,049 Iraqi families and 5,153 Syrian ones.

Additionally, it includes about 2,448 families with an estimate of 8,245 individuals including women and children of detained and dead of foreign ISIS militants.

The family consisted of a mother with her four children, the smallest was five years old.

Finland’s authorities have a constitutional obligation to safeguard the fundamental rights of Finnish citizens – especially children – and the only way to do so for their children in Syria is to bring them back, according to the Finnish government’s website.

Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs intends to repatriate as more Finnish families as possible from the camps.

Finland repatriated not only the children, but also their mom as priority has been given to the best interests of the child.

In 2019, officials of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) held talks with the Finnish Ministry of Interior about the Finnish families in Hawl Camp