Belgium Struggles to Repatriate ISIS Children Without Mothers, Justice Minister Says

"The Government’s position in favor of the repatriation of children under the age of 10 is clear and unchanged" [...]. And it is false to say that this commitment has remained a dead letter," Koen Geens (CD&V) reassured.

"For the other children, we are blocked because, in principle, it is not possible to separate children from their mothers," he made clear to the deputies. In this sense, Koen Geens believes that it would be absurd to plead only for the return of the children, knowing that this is impossible without also ensuring the return of their mothers.

According to him, this measure will allow the "foreign fighters", that is to say the Belgian jihadists who have fought abroad, in Iraq, to be tried. To this end, the Minister said that Belgium is in negotiations with Iraq so that its justice system tries the "foreign fighters" in compliance with human rights.

Already, 43 Belgian adults and 56 Belgian children have been located in camps or prisons in Syria. "This is not an assessment of the total number of ’foreign fighters’," Koen Geens nuanced.

The repatriation of six orphaned children took place last summer after an agreement with the Kurdish authorities at a time when the situation had seen a certain stability. However, the Kurds are currently facing an offensive by the Turkish army in northern Syria.