A Dutch woman and three children have returned home from the Syrian camp ISIL | Conflicting Issues
Kurdish-led officials in northeastern Syria handed over the team to delegates from the Netherlands on Saturday.
Kurdish-led officials in northeastern Syria have also surrendered to the Netherlands a Dutch mother, her two young sons, and a Dutch girl, who lives in a family camp that claims to be ISIL (ISIS) militants.
A Dutch delegation led by a special envoy to Syria Emiel de Bont received four on Saturday in Qamishli, in the Kurdish administrative office.
The group is being repatriated and Kurdish officials say the elderly woman is not being held accountable by their supervisors.
This was a small part of tackling the crisis in Europe and the Middle East – what to do with the thousands of their citizens who have gone to ISIL in Syria and Iraq.
At a press conference, De Bont said the four live in a village called Roj, home to many Western women traveling to Syria and Iraq, with their children.
“This is a legal task that my government has decided to do because the Dutch court will rule on these cases,” De Bont said. He did not elaborate on the decisions.
“We are here to serve the law and do what we can to help with the proper laws,” he added.
‘A dreadful camp’
It was the second time that Dutch citizens have returned to camps in northeastern Syria, where thousands of foreign and Iraqi people have been living since the military coup in 2019. Two Dutch orphans were reunited in June 2019.
European nations have been refusing to repatriate citizens living in this way. Many are worried that there is not enough evidence to test who joined the group, or is afraid they might be linked to ISIL.
A Dutch court ruled last year that authorities do not compel the repatriation of a group of 23 Dutch women and their 56 children imprisoned in northern Syria. Experts say there will be differences in each case.
At least 220 children of Dutch descent still live in Syria or Turkey, 75% of whom are under the age of four and were born in this area to Dutch parents.
Syrian Kurdish officials, who were part of an international alliance that fought against ISIL until the term “caliphate” collapsed in March 2019, say camps where more than 70,000 ISIL families live in security and heavy security. The Kurds are still fighting militants on the run, and fear that the prisons may be reunited with other ISIL members.
“International organizations must take responsibility for bringing these terrorists to justice and repatriating their citizens,” said Abdulkarim Omar, a Syrian official.
He asked for help to manage another, larger, larger camp al-Hol, which he called “the most dangerous camp in the world”.
Aid groups have helped explain al-Hol, what the Kurdish Syrian authorities have struggled to control and the number of killings. They believe they are being treated by ISIL agents as a punishment for those who have gone astray in public.
Thousands are also incarcerated, and cases are repeatedly tried.
