Denmark has not requested repatriation of citizens from Rojava: official

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Danish government has not yet approached Rojava authorities to begin the process of repatriating its citizens from northeast Syria (Rojava), a senior Kurdish official told Rudaw English on Saturday. Copenhagen said this week it will bring home 22 women and children affiliated with the Islamic State group (ISIS).

Danish justice Minister Nick Hekkerup told reporters on Tuesday that his country will repatriate 22 citizens - three women and their 14 children as well as five other childrens without their mothers - held by Kurdish authorities in Rojava, reported Reuters.

Abdulkarim Omar, co-chair of Rojava’s foreign relations office, told Rudaw English on Saturday that Danish officials have not discussed this with them, even when a delegation from Denmark’s foreign ministry visited earlier this month.

“We have not been officially requested to hand over their citizens,” said Omar, adding they have criteria for any handover of ISIS-affiliated people to their home countries. Fighters and women who have committed crimes will not be handed over and children will not be handed over without the consent of their mothers.

“If the Danish government asks us to repatriate their children and women, we will make a decision based on this policy,” he said.

Hekkerup told reporters that the women and children they planned to repatriate “must be held accountable for their actions, and they will be tried for custody as soon as they set foot on Danish soil.”

Omar said those who have committed crimes “should be tried here,” in northeast Syria where the crimes were committed.

ISIS seized control of swathes of land in Syria and Iraq in 2014, establishing a so-called caliphate straddling the border. It was territorially defeated in Syria by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with support of the global coalition against ISIS in 2019 and thousands of people affiliated with the group were arrested.

Suspected fighters are being held in prisons while their families have been living in two separate camps - Roj and the notorious al-Hol. They include citizens from dozens of countries.

Many Western nations have resisted repatriating their citizens despite repeated calls from Kurdish and US officials. Before its decision this week, Denmark had refused to bring back women with Danish citizenship on the grounds that they would pose a security threat.

A Danish delegation visited Rojava in June 2019 and took home a child who needed urgent medical care.

More than 10,000 foreign, non-Iraqi children live at the al-Hol and Roj camps. Half of them are under the age of five.

A Danish delegation, headed by Kristof Vifik, director of consular affairs at foreign ministry, visited Rojava on May 4, staying for several days.

The delegation “stayed as guests and visited Roj camp to see their citizens, children and women, but we did not discuss repatriation. After they returned to Denmark, they have seemingly discussed the issue of the repatriation of three women and some children,” Omar told Rudaw English on Saturday.

Denmark has not requested repatriation of citizens from Rojava: official

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