Paris: The French Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that France has returned 32 children and 15 women who were detained in jihadist prison camps in northeastern Syria.
The ministry issued a statement saying, "The minors were handed over to the services in charge of child support and will be subject to medical and social monitoring." The adults have been "handed over to the competent judicial authorities," it continued.
Over the past ten years, thousands of extremists from Europe have traveled to Syria to fight for the Daesh organization. They often brought their families with them so they could live in the self-proclaimed "caliphate" the group had established on the ground in Iraq and Syria.
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The return of family members of fighters killed or captured has been a contentious issue for European countries since the "caliphate" was overthrown in 2019.
Tuesday's announcement of the return marks France's third significant repatriation, which was forced by pressure from humanitarian organisations.
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The first happened in October last year when Paris deported 15 women and 40 children, and the second happened in July when 16 mothers and 35 children were deported.
The Rose camp in northeastern Syria, which is run by Kurds and lies about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Turkish and Iraqi borders, was home to women and children who were repatriated on Tuesday.
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The local government in cooperation with northeast Syria, which made this operation possible, was thanked by the French authorities. The operation began on Tuesday, shortly after France was criticized by the United Nations Committee Against Torture for not returning French nationals held in prison facilities in northeast Syria.