Record number of foreigners repatriated from IS camps in Syria this year

QAMISHRI, SYRIA: Deportations of foreign women and children belonging to the Islamic State from detention camps in northeastern Syria hit a record high in 2022, Kurdish authorities said on Tuesday (8 November). .

Thousands of foreigners, including women and children, have been forced into Syria to live in IS’s so-called “caliphate” until 2019, when US-backed Kurdish forces wrest the last pockets of Syrian territory from the jihadists. I was going to

Fugitive women and children were held in overcrowded detention camps run by Kurdish authorities and international NGOs who had sought repatriation due to escalating violence and dire conditions in the camps.

The government responded slowly, fearing security threats and a public backlash against the return of individuals radicalized by Islamic State.

But the pace has accelerated in his year, with 517 women and children repatriated so far, according to Kurdish official statistics.

Over 100 from France and over 50 from Germany were included. More than 150 have been returned to Tajikistan, a first for the country.

324 returns in 2021, 281 returns in 2020, and 342 returns in 2019.

A senior local government official, Badran Zia Kurd, told Reuters that more than 10,000 foreign women and children remained in Alhol and Roy camps.

Retta Taylor, counter-terrorism director at Human Rights Watch, said the UN and European Court of Human Rights criticized European countries for failing to repatriate their nationals. .

He also found that states had legal frameworks to prosecute and imprison those who traveled to IS-held areas, making those governments more willing to bring them home, Taylor added. .

But she said the numbers for 2022 are “still falling in the bucket.”

“This humanitarian and security crisis in one of the world’s most complex conflict areas will only get worse as countries continue to entrust the management of their detained populations to non-state forces,” said Taylor. said.