France has repatriated 35 French children and 16 mothers – family members of suspected jihadists who joined the Islamic State armed group before it was ousted in 2019. This is the country's largest repatriation of children since the fall of Islamic State, with the decision to bring back the mothers signalling a significant shift in French policy.
The Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that 35 minors had arrived in France, most of them traveling with their mothers, though seven had been living on their own in Kurdish-run refugee camps in north-eastern Syria.
They are part of a group of 200 French children still in Syria – most under the age of 10 – who were either brought there by their parents who had joined the Islamic State armed group (IS), or who were born there.
The children were accompanied by 16 women, 12 of whom were traveling with their children, and four who had agreed previously to send their children back to France.
Among them was Emilie Konig, known for having recruited dozens of women to go to Syria to become wives of IS jihadists operating there.
Why not all the children?
Theirry Roy, of the Familles Unies NGO of family members of those who went to Syria and Iraq, said: “We are happy that the repatriations have started, but we do not understand why these children have been chosen and not others.”
His son died in Syria in 2016.
“A big question mark remains: Why has our President made this choice?” he asked.
The NGO had recently called on President Emmanuel Macron to start his second term in office by repatriating "all French children" in Syria.
Some 126 children of jihadists have been brought back to France since 2016, most without their mothers. France has not repatriated any child in over a year, and very few adults.
This latest repatriation "must ring the death knell of an inhuman policy that has lasted for years" tweeted lawyer Marie Dose, who has represented many families.
🎈Cette première opération doit sonner le glas d’une politique inhumaine qui dure depuis des années. 150 enfants sont encore dans le camp Roj et voient leurs copains repartir. L’urgence est de rapatrier TOUS les enfants et leurs mères. #RapatriezLes https://t.co/dMAlLDwH1A
— Cabinet Marie Dosé & Judith Lévy (@DoseLevy_Avocat) July 5, 2022
France does not want them
Since the Islamic State was defeated in Syria and Iraq in 2019, European countries have been struggling with what to do with their citizens recruited to fight for the group, and the women who were their wives.
The timing of the decision to repatriate this group of children and mothers – coming after the presidential and legislative elections – may not be a coincidence.
“There is a part of the population that does not want to see the children of these terrorists – of those who tried to humiliate France – in France,” lawyer Samia Maktouf told RFI.
Maktouf has worked to get five children back from Syria, and says that France has “a responsibility to these children” who are French, and “deserve all protections from French authorities”.
Until now, France has considered repatriation on a case-by-case basis, and has refused to bring back adults.
In June, Belgium decided to repatriate nearly all Belgian children in Syria.
The United Nations has criticised France for abandoning children in camps in deplorable conditions.
Rebuilding lives
For Roy, leaving mothers behind in Syria will only harm the children in France who he says are victims of their parents’ bad decisions.
“It is important for the wellbeing of a child, for their development”, to be with their mother, he told RFI. “You cannot raise a child by tearing it away from its mother.”
While they will remain in France, the children will not stay with their mothers, who have been handed over to judicial authorities. Prosecutors have arrested eight, and eight others are being held for questioning ahead of their arrest.
The children will undergo medical examinations and be put into the care of child protection services with an eye to reuniting them with family members, mostly their grandparents.
Explanations in court
Lawyer Samia Maktouf argues the mothers should also be brought to France to stand trial.
“For the mothers, we have a responsibility to the victims to allow them to attend an fair trial,” she said. “They have the right to attend a trial, during which these mothers … can explain themselves.”
Holding trials in France could shine a light on what was happening thousands of kilometres away, where the 2015 Paris attacks were planned, among others.
Families of the victims of those attacks, who have been following the trial of those involved that ended last week, have called on France to repatriate the children from Syria.
Philippe Duperron, president of the the 13 Onze 15 Fraternité-Verité NGO of victims' parents, says the children of jihadists are also victims, just like his son, Thomas, who was killed at the Bataclan theatre.
“Justice for them is repatriation and being taken in by child protection services with the goal of being returned with their families – notably their grandparents,” he told RFI.
“Justice is also that the mothers stand in front of French courts to answer to what they have done and committed.”
