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An ISIS suspect with an injured leg walks on crutches alonside children at al-Hol camp in Hasaka, northeast Syria in July 2019. Photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — France began repatriating ten "vulnerable young children" from camps in northeast Syria on Sunday, the French foreign ministry has announced.
"The decision was made in view of the situation of these particularly vulnerable young children, and within the framework of given authorisation by local authorities," the statement from the French foreign ministry read.
"These children were handed over to French judicial authorities, and are now subject to medical observation and the care of social services," the statement added.
The statement did not identify the children as the kin of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters, instead simply saying that they had been living "in camps in northeast Syria".
However, the North and East Syria Autonomous Administration (NES)-affiliated Hawar News outlet reported the handover of ten "orphaned" children "from the families of ISIS mercenaries" to French authorities, following the visit of a French delegation to the NES' foreign relations office in Qamishli on an unspecified date.
Speaking to press after the meeting, France's Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs representative Eric Chevallier hailed the talks as "productive and useful," having covered topics as broad as the US’s Caesar Act sanctions, the reopening of al-Yarubiyah border crossing with Iraq to humanitarian aid, as well as the trial and detention of ISIS fighters.
NES foreign relations co-chair Abdulkarim Omar told press that he had called on France to play a role in pushing forward the trial and detention of foreign fighters.
With the repatriation of ISIS kin continuing to prove contentious for European countries who cite security risks, France has only been repatriating children related to fighters of the extremist militant group on a case-by-case basis.
According to French news outlet Ouest-France, Paris has repatriated 28 children from Syria since the territorial defeat of ISIS in the country in March 2019. Those repatriated are only a small fraction of the 300 children being held at the northeast Syrian camps of al-Hol and Roj as of March 2020, according to French human rights organisation Collectif des Familles Unies.
France held an urgent repatriation of a seven-year-old girl suffering from severe ill-health caused by a congenital heart condition in April. The Toulouse-born child, held at al-Hol camp, was repatriated after calls by international human rights organisations for her return.
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