France repatriated, Tuesday, January 24, fifteen women and thirty-two children who were detained in jihadist prison camps in northeastern Syria, announced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The minors have been handed over to the services responsible for child support and will be subject to medical and social monitoring”said the Quai d’Orsay in a press release. “The adults have been handed over to the competent judicial authorities”he added.
This collective repatriation operation, the first of the year 2023, confirms the break already begun in 2022 in Paris with the “case by case” policy, which has earned it condemnation by international bodies and blamed by organizations. French advisors.
Doctrine change
On October 20, 2022, fifteen jihadist women and forty French children detained in camps in northeastern Syria had already been repatriated by the French authorities. It was the largest operation of this type carried out by France to date. The previous one, which concerned sixteen women and thirty-five minors, on July 5, 2022, marked a major turning point and a change in doctrine: after more than three years of blockage, Paris had decided to repatriate all of its nationals and of their children detained since the final fall of the pseudo “caliphate” of the Islamic State (IS) organization in March 2019 in Baghouz.
Until the summer of 2022, France favored repatriation on a “case-by-case” basis, which consists of bringing children back to national soil without their mothers, i.e. either orphans or children whose mothers had agreed to sign a document renouncing their parental rights. Only thirty-five children presumed orphans had thus been repatriated by Paris, the last of which in January 2021.
Among European countries, France was increasingly isolated in its choice of repatriation “on a case-by-case basis”. Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany have decided to repatriate all of their minor nationals, accompanied by their mothers when possible. The reversal of the Elysée was also motivated by the multiplication of condemnations by international bodies.