France repatriates three women, 10 children from Syrian camps

PARIS: France on Tuesday repatriated three women and 10 children from Syrian prisons for alleged jihadists, anti-terror prosecutors said, in the first such operation in two years.
Repatriation is a deeply sensitive issue in France, which has been a target of Islamists over the last decade, notably in 2015, when jihadist gunmen and suicide bombers staged the worst attack on Paris since World War II, killing 130 people.
More than five years after the Islamic State group's territorial defeat in Iraq and Syria, tens of thousands of people are still held in Kurdish-run camps and prisons in northeastern Syria, many with alleged or perceived links to IS.
The women repatriated early Tuesday morning are aged between 18 and 34.
Two of them have been taken into police custody, while the third faces possible indictment, according to France's anti-terror unit PNAT.
The 10 children were handed over to child care services and will be monitored by the anti-terror unit and local prosecutors, it added.
France's foreign ministry thanked "the Syrian transitional authorities and the local administration in northeastern Syria for making the operation possible".
Since 2019, France has repatriated 179 children and 60 women, according to a diplomatic source.
The country halted such operations two years ago.
'Immense relief'
Matthieu Bagard, the head of the Syria unit at Lawyers Without Borders, said that Tuesday's repatriation showed France "has the capacity to organise such operations".
Marie Dose, a lawyer who represents the repatriated women, hailed the move.
"For families who have waited more than six years for the return of their grandchildren, nephews and nieces, this is an immense and indescribable relief," Dose said in a statement to AFP.
But she added that 110 French children remained detained in the Roj camp controlled by Kurdish forces, describing France's repatriation policy as "arbitrary".
Dose accused France of seeking "to make these children pay for their parents' choices".
As of June, some 120 children "guilty of nothing" and 50 French women remained in the camps, according to the United Families Collective, which represents their families.
In February, the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Syria said that in coordination with the United Nations, it aimed to empty camps by the end of the year.
International pressure
Several European countries, such as Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, have recovered many of their citizens from the Syrian camps.
International organisations have for years called on France to take back the wives and children of suspected IS fighters held in the camps since the group was ousted from its self-declared "caliphate" in 2019.
France has refused blanket repatriation, saying the return of potentially radicalised IS family members would pose security risks in France.
In 2022, Europe's top human rights court condemned France's refusal to repatriate two French women who were being held in Syria after joining their Islamist partners.
The following year, the United Nations Committee Against Torture said that in refusing to repatriate women and minors, France was violating the UN Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
On Monday, three French women went on trial in Paris, accused of travelling to the Middle East to join IS and taking their eight children with them.
One of the women is a niece of Jean-Michel and Fabien Clain, who claimed responsibility on behalf of the IS group for the 2015 attacks in Paris.

LONDON: Britain’s King Charles III on Sunday led commemorations for the nation ‘s war dead, along with other senior members of the royal family including his son William and his wife Catherine.
The 76-year-old monarch, who is still undergoing treatment for an undisclosed cancer, laid the first wreath at a somber ceremony at the Cenotaph memorial in central London after the traditional two-minute silence at 11:00 am (1100 GMT).
Queen Camilla and Catherine, now in remission after her own cancer diagnosis, watched from the balcony of the Foreign Office overlooking the memorial.
Crowds lined the Whitehall area of the capital as political leaders, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer, current and former members of the armed forces, and war veterans, paid their respects to British and Commonwealth soldiers killed in two world wars and other conflicts.
Around 10,000 armed forces veterans took part in a march-past, including around 20 who served in World War II.
Among those who took part was 101-year-old Sid Machin, one of the last survivors of the Burma (now Myanmar) campaign, who served as part of a special forces unit.
Other members of the royal family including Prince William also laid wreaths.
Prince Harry, 41, who is largely estranged from his family after quitting royal duties along with his wife Meghan in 2020, was not present.
Days ahead of the Remembrance Sunday events, however, he penned a piece released by his US office in which he expressed his pride at being British and urged people not to forget veterans.
The younger son of the king, who did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, said he had witnessed “courage and compassion in the harshest conditions imaginable.”
“But I also saw how easy it can be, once the uniform comes off, for those who gave everything, to feel forgotten,” he said.
On Saturday evening, William and Catherine’s eldest son, Prince George, 12, attended his first tribute for soldiers killed in action at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
It was the first time George, second in line to the throne, had attended the Festival of Remembrance event organized annually by the Royal British Legion, an association dedicated to supporting veterans and their families.
The event, always attended by the monarch and senior members of the royal family, featured readings, prayers, videos and musical performances — including a performance by Rod Stewart.

France repatriates three women, 10 children from Syrian camps