During the night of Monday June 20 to Tuesday 21, sixteen children of jihadists, aged between three and twelve, and six mothers, detained at the Al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria, were repatriated to Belgium. Among the repatriated children, some were born in the camps. As soon as they arrived, they were taken to the hospital for physical and psychological examinations. For their part, the mothers were sent directly to prison.
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Since the fall of the self-proclaimed caliphate of the Islamic State, it is the second operation of its kind. The first took place in July 2021 with ten repatriated children and six mothers. Since 2012, nearly 400 Belgian citizens have joined the ranks of IS, making the country one of the most affected in Europe by these massive departures to Syria. In March 2021, after the green light from the anti-terrorist services, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo promised to “do everything” to repatriate from these camps children under the age of 12 whose Belgian parentage was proven by a DNA analysis.
To try to best prepare separation between the children and their mother, a questionnaire had been sent to them beforehand. “Each child was able to count on a person who spoke their language, emphasizes Federal Police Commissioner Marc de Mesmaecker and all received appropriate food as well as extra clothing and stuffed animals.”
“We have made sure that the children can temporarily separate from their mother in the most serene way possible.”
Marc de Mesmaecker, Commissioner of the Federal Policeat franceinfo
Most of the mothers have already been sentenced by the Belgian courts to terms of up to five years in prison. Their children will be followed by the Judicial Protection of Youth, like the ten other repatriates in July 2021.
We know very little about these children who have already been repatriated, only that they are mostly educated in Belgium and that they live, when possible, with their grandparents, but all this is organized in a great discretion.
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“What we have observed since the beginning of these repatriations in Belgium has convinced us of their usefulness”assures the federal prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw. “Without giving too many details, the analysis that has been made shows very positive developments for the moment.” A positive assessment for the women and children repatriated a year ago, but “we must remember that there is a whole series of women and children who have also returned via Turkeysays the federal prosecutor. And in any case, the evolution of the women and children who returned last year is considered quite positive by the various services concerned”he adds.
To justify this return policy initiated in 2017, the Belgian authorities explained that “in these camps in Syria, there are the terrorists of tomorrow”. OCAM, the Belgian body responsible for analyzing the terrorist threat, for its part judged in a report that the children and mothers who have stayed in these camps require permanent monitoring which is much easier to insure on Belgian soil.
Unlike Belgium or Germany, France maintains a decried policy of returns in dribs and drabs, while living conditions there are “appalling”, according to the UN. Several associations, such as 13onze15, Fraternity and Truth, the Human Rights League, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, called “solemnly France to repatriate the French children and their mother detained in the camps in northeastern Syria as soon as possible”, in May 2022.
A group of families, bringing together those of nearly 80 wives of jihadists and 200 French children who are still believed to be detained in Roj, regularly asks the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron to repatriate the children “prisoners of Syria” in the name of “international commitments” from France. Since 2016, 126 French children have returned from Syria or Iraq, most of them very young. On December 14, 2021, a 28-year-old French woman with diabetes died, leaving a 6-year-old girl orphan.