“French authorities are now entering an active phase of evaluation on the possibility of repatriating minors,” one French official said, Reuters reported Wednesday.
Between 500 and 700 French citizens are believed to have joined ISIS and other Islamist groups in Iraq and Syria. Western nations are grappling with how to handle these citizens, concerned they could pose a security risk if allowed to return home.
The Kurdish-led SDF has repeatedly called on western governments to take back their citizens and try them in their own courts. Several suspected militants in SDF custody have publicly repented and appealed to their respective governments to take them back.
Having ruled out allowing jihadist fighters and their wives to return, French officials are now considering the option of separating children from their mothers. The parents would remain in the region to be processed by the local justice system.
Officials fear that failure to protect these children now could cause them to become militants down the line.
“It is in the best interest of the children,” one of the officials added.
According to Reuters, some 60 women, including 40 mothers with about 150 minors, have been reported in Syria by families in France, with the large majority of the children under the age of six.
France has already repatriated three children belonging to a suspected ISIS widow, who was jailed by an Iraqi court in December 2017. She was allowed to keep her youngest child with her in prison.
The first children could be repatriated before the end of the year.
French firepower played a major role in the coalition-led battle for Mosul, the largest city ISIS ever conquered. Its forces are currently backing SDF efforts to clear ISIS remnants from Deir ez-Zor and the desert areas of eastern Syria.
France has suffered large-scale domestic terrorist attacks claimed by the jihadist group – the most devastating being a series of coordinated shootings and suicide bombings across Paris on November 13, 2015 in which 130 people and seven attackers died.
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