(Paris) Lawyers and a parliamentarian again called on the French authorities on Thursday to repatriate the French women and children of jihadists held in camps in Syria, where the health situation is “catastrophic”.
“France abandons its children, its nationals, in camps in Kurdistan, at the mercy of deplorable sanitary conditions, at the mercy of Daesh which is taking back power in the camps”, declared the environmental deputy Hubert Julien-Laferrière during a press conference.
He is part of a delegation, made up of lawyers, which visited Iraq and northeastern Syria, in order to discuss with the Kurdish authorities the fate of French families currently detained in Syria.
The mission – the third since December 2020 – was conducted from October 30 to November 3 by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH), the National Bar Council (CNB), the association Avocats sans frontières (ASF ) France.
All demand “to organize without delay the repatriation to France of children and women of French nationality detained in Rojava (north-eastern Syria) and to implement all possible actions to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid. “.
The health situation is “absolutely catastrophic on the spot where there are French children at risk of death,” lamented Simon Foreman, member of the CNCDH.
“The fate of these women and children is a legal aberration. We can fear that no decision will be taken before the presidential election, ”warned Richard Sedillot, of the National Bar Council.
Some 80 French women, who had joined the Islamic State organization, and 200 children are detained in Kurdish camps in northeastern Syria.
The French authorities maintain a case-by-case return policy for these children – 35, mostly orphans, have been repatriated so far – and consider that the adults should be tried on the spot.
The delegation was once again unable to access the women and children held in the camps, regretted lawyer Marie Dosé.
“It is an inextricable situation and there is an urgent need for clarification from the French authorities with regard to these children”, underlined Matthieu Bagard, secretary general of ASF France.