France Repatriates Three Women and Ten Children from Syrian Jihadist Camps

Erbil (Kurdistan24) – The French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) announced Tuesday the repatriation of three women and ten children from jihadist detention camps in northeast Syria (Western Kurdistan), in a move underscoring the ongoing sensitivity of the issue a decade after France’s devastating wave of jihadist attacks. The announcement coincides with the opening of a high-profile trial in Paris against three French women accused of joining the Islamic State group in Raqqa in 2014.

In a statement released on Tuesday, September 16, the PNAT confirmed that three women, aged between 18 and 34, together with ten children, were flown back to French territory in the early hours of the morning from jihadist camps in northeastern Syria.

According to the prosecutor’s office, “two of the adult women have been placed in police custody, on the order of an investigating judge.” A third woman, already the subject of an arrest warrant, is scheduled to appear before a judge during the day with the possibility of being formally indicted.

The children, all minors, are being cared for under protective measures managed by the juvenile prosecutor’s office of the Versailles judicial court. “The minors are being taken in under educational assistance procedures,” the PNAT stated, adding that its office “will ensure centralized follow-up for the children concerned, in coordination with territorial prosecutors.”

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed gratitude to the local authorities who facilitated the transfer. “France thanks the transitional Syrian authorities as well as the local administration of northeast Syria, whose cooperation made this operation possible,” the ministry’s spokesperson declared.

The repatriation follows growing pressure from advocacy groups. The “Collective of United Families,” which represents relatives of those still detained in Syria, estimates that as of June 2025 around 120 children and fifty women of French nationality remained in the camps. After the return operation, the collective reiterated its longstanding message on social media platform X, decrying the plight of “children guilty of nothing” being held in “degrading and unworthy conditions.”

The issue of repatriating jihadist-affiliated nationals remains politically charged in France. Following the 2015–2016 terror attacks, public opinion has remained deeply divided over whether to return citizens linked to the Islamic State. France conducted several repatriation operations between 2019 and 2023 but halted them in the summer of 2023, despite repeated international condemnations, including a 2022 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights obliging Paris to act.

Since then, the French government has cited the danger of carrying out such missions in conflict zones as its justification for suspending further operations.

In February 2025, however, the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria announced, in coordination with the United Nations, its plan to empty the camps of all displaced Syrians and Iraqis—including families of suspected jihadists—by the end of 2025, raising pressure on foreign governments to take back their citizens.

Parallel Judicial Proceedings in Paris

The repatriation coincides with a major trial that opened Monday, September 15, in Paris, where three French women accused of belonging to the Islamic State group are facing justice before a special assize court.

Among them is Jennyfer Clain, aged 34, the niece of Jean-Michel and Fabien Clain—two central figures in Islamic State propaganda who were presumed killed in Syria. The Clain brothers were the voices behind the group’s claim of responsibility for the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks, and were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in 2022.

Standing in the dock in Paris, Jennyfer Clain declared:

“I am not here to deny the facts for which I am charged. I adhered to this murderous terrorist group. I am guilty. I regret it deeply, but I cannot turn back the clock.”

Clain appeared before the judges dressed in a grey jacket, white blouse, and jeans, admitting her allegiance to ISIS but portraying herself as trapped in a radical environment since childhood. “Today, seeing my children at the age I was back then makes me realize it was not my choice, for example, to wear the veil at 10 years old,” she said, insisting she remains Muslim but rejects radical communalism.

Clain is being tried alongside her mother-in-law, Christine Allain, aged 67, and her sister-in-law by marriage, Mayalen Duhart, who is the only defendant not in custody. All three face up to 30 years in prison for terrorist conspiracy.

Christine Allain, once a special needs educator, converted to Islam after years of personal struggles and depression, influenced by her son Thomas Collange. He had drawn her, as well as his partner Mayalen Duhart, into radical circles linked to Fabien Clain.

Duhart, now working in a bakery, told the court she had followed her partner out of devotion. “Very quickly, he told me I had to convert. I couldn’t imagine my life without him,” she testified. The couple traveled to Syria multiple times before settling in Raqqa in 2014.

After the fall of Raqqa, the three women moved along the Euphrates River as ISIS lost territory to advancing Kurdish forces. They were eventually arrested in Turkey’s Kilis province in 2019 with nine children aged between 3 and 13. Deported to France in September of that year, they were placed under judicial investigation.

The judges noted that the women had “remained durably embedded within jihadist groups” and had “knowingly chosen to join ISIS after the proclamation of the caliphate, benefiting from housing and salaries provided by the organization.”

Christine Allain’s lawyer, Edouard Delattre, told AFP that his client has changed dramatically. “She is now at peace with herself. She has worked a great deal on her rehabilitation. She detests the person she became,” he said.

Jennyfer Clain and Mayalen Duhart also face charges of parental neglect for voluntarily bringing their children into a war zone to join a terrorist group.

The trial is scheduled to last until September 26, and it highlights the complex judicial and political challenges faced by France as it continues to address the legacy of ISIS. The juxtaposition of ongoing repatriations with the trial of returnees illustrates the tension between humanitarian obligations and national security concerns.

The French state, while seeking to prosecute adults accused of jihadist affiliations, has emphasized the need to safeguard children through educational and welfare systems. As the camps in northeast Syria move toward closure by the end of the year, France will be pressed to reconcile international obligations, domestic security imperatives, and the demands of justice.