France halts repatriating families of jihadists from Syria

A diplomatic source said on Friday that France will halt collective repatriation operations for the wives of jihadists and their children detained in camps in northeastern Syria, such as those carried out this week, due to the lack of willing participants.

The source told Agence France-Presse, "After repatriating all the mothers who expressed their desire to leave Syria, there will be no further operations of this kind."

France repatriated ten women and 25 children from Syria on Tuesday, in the fourth operation of its kind in a year.

The diplomatic source clarified on Friday that France cannot "repatriate residents abroad by force, nor their children, of course," adding that 169 children and 57 women have been repatriated to French territory since 2019.

The source added that "some extremist mothers have stated that they wish to remain in Syria," without disclosing the exact number.

An informed source had previously told Agence France-Presse in May that around 80 French women did not wish to "return."

These women had voluntarily traveled to areas controlled by jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria and were arrested after the fall of the Islamic State in 2019.

Any adult French citizen who travels to the Iraqi-Syrian region and remains there is subject to legal procedures.

Until the summer of 2022, France has decided to limit repatriation operations to orphaned or minor children whose mothers have agreed to waive their custody rights.




AFP