“France today carried out an operation to return French children and mothers from camps in northeast Syria to national territory. This operation resulted in the return of 10 minors and three adult women,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
It was the first repatriation operation carried out by Paris in two years.
Marine Le Pen, France’s main far-right leader, slammed the operation as one that creates “unacceptable” risks.
“By bringing back to France female jihadists who have engaged in a war against France, the government is taking the unacceptable risk that once they are released from prison, if they enter it, and imbued with the totalitarian ideology of Islamism, they will return to action,” she said on X.
France has repatriated 179 children and 60 women from Rojava camps since 2019, AFP reported, citing a diplomatic source.
Thousands of individuals with suspected ISIS ties are held in al-Hol and Roj camps, both located in Rojava’s Hasaka province and controlled by the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Iraq plans to hold a conference on September 26 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, aiming to accelerate the repatriation of ISIS-linked individuals from the notorious al-Hol camp.
The camp has a population of 27,488 people (7,770 families), mostly women and children with alleged ties with ISIS. The number includes 15,233 Syrians (4,200 families) and 5,854 Iraqis (1,655 families). The rest are from numerous countries around the world, according to the latest figure provided by Sheikhmous Ahmed, who oversees all IDP camps in Rojava, to Rudaw English.
Al-Hol camp, notorious for its dire conditions, has often been described as a breeding ground for terrorism. Rojava security forces recently carried out several operations inside the camp chasing suspected ISIS cells. Dozens of suspects have been detained in recent weeks.
Kurdish authorities in Rojava have repeatedly called on the international community to repatriate their nationals from al-Hol and Roj camps, but their calls have largely gone unanswered, with countries reluctant to do so over fears of extremist ideology spreading at home.
