We are interested in your experience using the site. But it cannot continue to maintain a sort of Guantanamo in Northeast Syria. France has set an example of dealing with the wounds inflicted on it by jihadist terrorism through law and justice by successfully conducting the extraordinary trial of the Novemattacks. They remain at the mercy of an offensive by Damascus or Ankara, which has never tolerated the emergence of a hostile Kurdish entity on its border.Īll solutions to try these women in the region, as Paris has always supported until now, have failed. Read more Subscribers only Organizations for terrorism victims support repatriating French children in Syria A legal no man's landįor a long time, France thought it could do so by leaving them to serve an unconvicted sentence in a legal and territorial no man's land – the sovereignty of the Kurdish forces that manage the camps in this autonomous Syrian Kurdistan is not internationally recognized. They all stressed that repatriating children without their mothers was impossible. All of these bodies have criticized the lack of education and the de facto abandonment of minor citizens. These French women and their children must be repatriated for humanitarian reasons, as has been emphasized by UNICEF, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, the French the Defender of Rights and the National Advisory Commission for Human Rights. Keeping them in such deplorable conditions would only increase their hatred of France. These children, who cannot be held guilty of their parents' crimes and half of whom are less than 7 years old, are entitled to a peaceful education without any room for extremism. Food is lacking and, above all, no education is provided, other than that given by mothers who are still radicalized. Health and hygiene are very basic, if not non-existent. Some 75 French women and 160 French children continue to live in unsafe camps, sweltering in the summer and shivering in the winter under their canvas tents. Read more Subscribers only France repatriates 16 women and 35 children from Syria in change of policy This operation – which involves seven orphans, 12 mothers with their 28 children and four mothers who previously agreed to have their children repatriated – is hopefully a start and not just an isolated decision. In doing so, it broke with its "case by case" policy, which until now has consisted of the piecemeal repatriation of orphans and children whose mothers had renounced their parental rights. In repatriating 35 children and 16 female jihadists held in camps in northeastern Syria on July 5, the government acted with courage and common sense. Hopefully, others will follow, for humanitarian reasons and to put returnees on trial. The decision to repatriate 35 children and 16 female jihadists held in Syria breaks with France's 'case by case' policy. France's salutary U-turn on repatriating jihadists and their children Editorial