France Repatriates 15 ISIS-Linked Women and 32 Children from Syrian Camps

In total, 15 French female jihadists aged 19 to 56 and 32 children were repatriated on a plane that landed on Tuesday morning at the Villacoublay (Yvelines) military airport, near Paris. These female jihadists were detained in prisoner camps in the Iraq-Syria zone, reports Le Parisien. They had also lived for several years in the ranks of the Islamic State (IS) organization, then in the prisoner camps held by the Kurdish forces. Seven of them are the subject of an arrest warrant. They will therefore be presented to an investigating magistrate during the day. As for the eight others, they were placed in police custody in execution of a search warrant, the public prosecutor’s office specifies.

After becoming aware of the departure of the persons concerned or their maintenance in the area controlled by the Islamic State after the attacks of January 2015 (Charlie Hebdo, Montrouge and Hyper Cacher), the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) had opened a procedure on the count of "criminal association in connection with a terrorist enterprise" targeting each of these "female jihadists" or "wives of jihadists".

The child welfare services are taking care of the repatriated children. They have been placed in foster families with appropriate educational measures. However, it is not excluded that some may be the subject of criminal proceedings.