The children are of several different nationalities, including Russia, Tajik, German, French, and Turkish, among others, the ministry said in a statement Monday.
“Along these lines, the foreign ministry calls on all countries to intensify efforts to repatriate their citizens who have joined the terrorist Daesh organizations, including children left with their mothers who are sentenced in Iraqi Corrective Directorates, including the juveniles who have served their sentenced,” the ministry said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Thirty-three Russian children were repatriated on June 10 after Iraqi officials and Russian diplomats in Baghdad were satisfied the children had “guardians, and the availability of legal assurances for protecting their rights”, the ministry added.
Russian state news agency TASS announced on July 11 that the Russian Emergencies Ministry evacuated more than 30 children of Russian citizens held in a prison in Baghdad.
“A special Il-76 flight belonging to the Russian Emergencies Ministry has arrived from Baghdad to Ramenskoye Airport in the Moscow Region with 33 children of Russian citizens that found themselves in the armed conflict zone,” the Russian ministry said in a statement.
Another batch of around 30 children of Russian origin will be evacuated from Iraq in August, TASS said, citing Anna Kuznetsova, Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights.
The Iraqi foreign ministry said its legal directorate, alongside the High Judicial Council, Ministry of Justice, and security agencies, is holding regular meetings with countries whose citizens remain stuck in its justice system.
Iraq’s diplomatic missions in these countries, meanwhile, have invited their host nations to repatriate their citizens, “which reflects the serious, real desire of Iraqi authorities” to repatriate the foreign women and children, the ministry added.
There are nearly one thousand foreign children born to ISIS parents stuck in legal limbo in Iraq. The UN children’s fund UNICEF has described them as the world’s “most vulnerable children”.
“They live in appalling conditions amid constant threats to their health, safety and well-being. They have little family support: While most are stranded with their mothers or other caregivers, many are completely alone,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement back in May, urging home countries to take back their children.
Some nations have been open to accepting these children, but many are wary of repatriating their parents as the difficulty obtaining evidence from Iraq and Syria to secure a prosecution in domestic courts may allow them to walk free and pose a security threat.
