Canada to repatriate 26 people from ISIS camps in NE Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A group of lawyers is racing to push the Canadian government to repatriate foreign-born mothers to Canadian children held in camps in northeast Syria for Islamic State (ISIS) family members.
According to lawyers on the case, a repatriation flight, taking back 26, including children and women, could arrive within a few short weeks.
But the agreement excludes four women married to Canadian men with ISIS ties who are missing or may have been killed. Between them, the foreign-born mothers have eight children.
In a statement by the lawyers, they said the women have children with special needs and separating them would “add to their suffering”. They also argued that the two women were taken to Syria by their husbands or were the victim of human trafficking.
Lawyers for the foreign-born mothers to Canadian children said the government’s decision would “maroon the mothers in northeast Syria, while the children would be brought to Canada alone,” according to CTV News.
In January, Canada said it would repatriate 13 children, six women, and four men from northeast Syria, including a former ISIS member known as ‘Jihadi Jack’.
In late January, Global Affairs Canada, the country’s chief diplomatic body, ruled out bringing back four foreign-born mothers of 10 Canadian children. The women had given birth to the children of their Canadian husbands. Global Affairs Canada gave the women one and a half weeks to decide whether to send the children to Canada by themselves or whether they should remain in the camps.
The Roj and al-Hawl camps house around 57,300 ISIS-linked individuals, including nearly 10,000 foreigners.
Canada has so far only repatriated two children and one woman from the camps.
In Feb., Yazidis who fled ISIS genocidal campaign in Sinjar, Iraq, to Canada have voiced their concern over the return of former ISIS members to the country, as they are unlikely to face trial due to a lack of evidence.