Belgium to Repatriate Children from Syrian Detention Camps, Citing Security Concerns

Faced with the catastrophic conditions in the detention camps in Syria, Belgium has decided to "do everything" to repatriate the Belgian children who are there, the Prime Minister had announced. Alexander De Croo had also warned about what would become of these children - essentially children of Belgian-Moroccan jihadists - if they were not repatriated urgently. "In these camps, there are the terrorists of tomorrow and we cannot accept that," he had hammered.

Only children under the age of 12 are affected by these repatriations. According to the Prime Minister, this is a "threshold often retained by youth protection services". In total, about thirty children will be repatriated.

The adult Belgian women detained in the detention camps in Syria, who number 13, are also affected by the operation. The only difference: their return will be examined "on a case-by-case basis" because the Belgian justice system has already convicted nine of them and four others are the subject of an international arrest warrant. "It is clear that the situation of the mothers is also very worrying. (...) In the camps, the conditions are deteriorating, (...) we are losing control," Alexander De Croo had said.

In early February, independent UN human rights experts had urged 57 countries to repatriate children and women of jihadists stranded in the "sordid" camps of Al Hol and Roj, in northeastern Syria.