“We hope that this repatriation signals a change in French policy“, reacted on Tuesday July 5 on franceinfo Marc Lopez, member of the United Families collective, after the announcement of the repatriation of 35 children and 16 women from the prison camp of Roj, in northeastern Syria. Grandfather of several children retained in this camp, Marc Lopez now hopes for the repatriation of “all the other children” and regrets that France has “wasted time”.
franceinfo: Why are these files so sensitive and these repatriations so complicated?
Mark Lopez: We do not really understand why these repatriations are complicated, especially when it comes to children who have been rotting in camps for 3, 4, 5 years and when other countries, especially European ones, have started repatriating since last year these children who are, I remind you, totally innocent, who didn’t ask for anything and who didn’t choose to go to the area. We are pleased that France is finally repatriating children again. There had been no repatriation for 18 months while other countries had repatriated dozens and dozens of children with their mothers for 18 months. And we hope that the other children will be repatriated extremely quickly because all the children are vulnerable, all are injured, traumatized. We wasted time. The orphans, who have just been repatriated, have been in the camp for three years. We could have done it before. These lost childhood years, no one is going to give them back. It is now hoped that they will heal, recover, have a normal and happy life.
If these children are innocent, this is not necessarily the case with their mothers. Do you think repatriated children should be separated from mothers?
We have been fighting for several years for the children to be repatriated with their mothers. It’s not just us who say it, it’s the Red Cross, Unicef, child psychiatrists. It makes no sense to separate children and their mothers. How can a child rebuild himself if he imagines his mother, whatever she did, in a camp, far from him, without any news? The Defender of Rights, the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, all asked that these children be repatriated with their mother. All these mothers are subject to legal proceedings in France. There is no longer anything that prevents them from being repatriated. We hope, in any case, that this repatriation signals a change in French policy at this level and that all the children will be repatriated with their mothers.
How can we accompany these children, sometimes brought up in hatred of France and the cult of jihad, on their return?
These children were not brought up to hate France and worship jihad because most of them are very young. And the life of these children, for two thirds, is life in the camps. I have a grandson who was born in a camp, he is three and a half years old, I have other grandchildren who are extremely young. Most of the children entered the camp when they were one year old, two years old, three years old. And for all we know, the dream of these young French people is to have a normal life, go to school, have friends, have hobbies and no longer languish in an unhealthy camp.