France Repatriates ‘ISIS Children’ from Syria

Paris on Monday announced the repatriation of 10 children born to French citizens who had traveled to join Islamic State in Syria. “France has carried out the return of 10 French minors, orphans or humanitarian cases who were in camps in northeast Syria,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Despite calls by rights groups, France to date has repatriated only 28 children from Syria. An estimated 300 French minors are currently being held along with one or both of their parents in Kurdish-run camps in the war-torn country, and Paris has insisted that its nationals face local justice rather than be tried back home. Overall, some 12,000 foreigners – including 8,000 children – are being detained at three facilities in northeastern Syria, where aid groups say they suffer from malnutrition and disease. Kurdish officials have warned that they lack sufficient resources to hold people indefinitely and have thus called on countries to take back their citizens.