INFO BFMTV – 40 children and 15 women were repatriated last night from Syria. The women will be taken in hand by the justice and the children by the social services.
A plane landed at 4 a.m. this Thursday at Villacoublay airport with 40 French children and 15 women from Syria on board. These returnees left the Al Hol camp on Wednesday.
Arrived on French territory, these women will now be placed in police custody at the DGSI or directly presented to an anti-terrorism judge, for those who were the subject of an arrest warrant.
For their part, the children will be entrusted to child welfare and handed over to foster families. Eight of them are orphans. They “will be subject to medical and social follow-up”, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They are 3 or 4 years old for the youngest, but the group also includes young teenagers.
France condemned in September
On September 14, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned France for failing to properly study requests for the repatriation of families of jihadists in Syria.
The ECHR had been seized by two French couples who had unsuccessfully asked the French authorities for the repatriation of their daughters, two young women companions of jihadists, and their three children. On September 14, she urged Paris to re-examine repatriation requests.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs then took note of this decision and said it was ready to “consider” new repatriations “whenever conditions permitted”.
On July 5, France brought back 35 minors and 16 mothers from jihadist prison camps in Syria, the first such massive repatriation to France of children and mothers since the fall in 2019 of the Islamic State “caliphate”. This was a change of doctrine, the French authorities having until then favored returns on a case-by-case basis for these complex operations.
In total, between March 15, 2019 and October 4, 2022, France repatriated 71 minors from Syrian camps, Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said during a hearing on October 5 before the Senate.
In July, Laurent Nunez, who was still coordinator of intelligence and the fight against terrorism at the time, had indicated on RMC that there were still a hundred women left and nearly 250 children in Syrian camps.
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