France plans to repatriate children of militants in Syria
Updated 15:57, 27-Oct-2018
CGTN
["europe"]
France is working to bring back children held by Syrian Kurdish forces who belong to suspected French Islamist militants, but will leave their mothers to be prosecuted by local authorities, French officials said.
France, like other European nations, has been wrestling with how to handle suspected militants and their families seeking to return from combat zones in Iraq and Syria, as well as those in detention, after Islamic State surrendered huge swathes of territory under military pressure.
France has suffered a series of deadly militant attacks over the past three years and is grappling with the threat of homegrown militancy as well as the risks posed by fighters slipping back across French borders.
A bullet-proof glass wall is being built around the base of the Eiffel Tower as part of a plan to provide extra protection against terrorist attacks in Paris, July 22, 2018. /VCG Photo

A bullet-proof glass wall is being built around the base of the Eiffel Tower as part of a plan to provide extra protection against terrorist attacks in Paris, July 22, 2018. /VCG Photo

While government policy has been to refuse to take back fighters and their wives, France has said it needed to determine the situation of minors.
"French authorities are now entering an active phase of evaluation on the possibility of repatriating minors," a French official said.
Some 60 women, including 40 mothers with about 150 minors, have been reported in Syria by families in France. The large majority of the children are under the age of six.
After cross-checking information with Kurdish authorities and the International Red Cross, Paris has located a number of them in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria.
Preparations are being put into place to repatriate children on a case-by-case basis, including those born in Syria, the officials said. Their return would depend on mothers agreeing to be separated from their children.
A mother is detained with her children at a camp for Islamic State group-affiliated people in the northern Syrian village of Ain Issa, February 15, 2018. /VCG Photo

A mother is detained with her children at a camp for Islamic State group-affiliated people in the northern Syrian village of Ain Issa, February 15, 2018. /VCG Photo

Paris is concerned that if these minors are left in Syria, they could eventually also become militants.
The first children could return by year's end, although the complexity of the situation may push the timeline.
Figures for the number of French Islamist fighters in the Levant region have varied between 500 and 700 over the years.
Authorities estimate there are about 100 in the rebel-held northeastern bastion of Idlib and dozens in the last Islamic State pocket near the Iraqi border.
(Cover: French Jihadist Melina Boughedir arrives in court carrying her son in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, February 19, 2018. Boughedir was arrested in former Islamic State group stronghold Mosul with her four children, three of whom have been repatriated to France. /VCG Photo)
Source(s): Reuters