Three French children living in an orphanage in Damascus could be repatriated to France now that the regime has changed in Syria. An RFI investigation has identified the children as orphans of jihadists who were killed during the international coalition’s bombing of the Islamic State armed group.
Three children, aged six, 11 and 12, have been living since 2019 in an orphanage in Damascus, whose director was prohibited from having direct contact with their family in France by the regime of Bashir al-Assad.
With the change in regime, there is hope that the children could be brought to France.
“Before she died, the mother had contacts with the childrens’ aunt, but I was not allowed to have any [contact],” the director of the orphanage, who asked to remain anonymous, told RFI.
“If I said anything, I would have ended up in the Saydnaya prison. The only way I was allowed to contact the childrens’ family was through the Red Crescent, which was risky.”
Nevertheless, the children were able to speak to their aunt every week.
They were brought to the orphanage in 2019 by Syrian intelligence officers, which gave little information about what happened to them.
Raids
The orphanage director learned, through the children themselves, that their parents, French jihadists, had been killed during the bombings of the Islamic state in the Deir Ezzor region.
“The children came here with an intelligence service document. The mother’s name was false,” explained the director.
“The children themselves told me their mother was dead, that there were bombings and many killed. Their father was also dead.”
The director wanted to keep a link with the aunt of the children even if it was forbidden by the Assad regime.
The orphanage has not had any contact with French authorities, according to the director, who is determined to get the children repatriated.
France has been reluctant to repatriate women jihadists and their children being held in Syria, and until 2022 only allowed children on a case-by-case basis whose mothers agreed to give up their parental rights.
However, policy changes have accelerated the return, and France has always promised to care for orphans.
Since the collapse of the Islamic State in 2019, 170 women have returned from Iraq and Syria, and more than 350 children are being followed by child services around France.
This article was adapted from an article by Murielle Paradon and Boris Vichith which appeared in French on www.rfi.fr
