Germany repatriates 10 women and their children from Syria

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2022/03/31 16:52

Al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria (Photo: AFP)

Syria Germany SDF AANES Abdul Karim Omar Annalena Baerbock

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Germany repatriated ten women and their 27 children from Roj camp in northeast Syria on Wednesday.

The Foreign Relations office of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) said the ten women and their 27 children were handed over after the signing of a transfer document.

“Today, March 30, 2022, 10 German women and 27 children from ISIS families were handed over to a delegation from German Foreign Affairs Ministry according to an official repatriation document signed by the two sides,” the co-chair of AANES’ Foreign Relations Department, Abdul Karim Omar, tweeted on Wednesday.

Today, March 30, 2022, 10 German women and 27 children from ISIS families were handed over to a delegation from German Foreign Affairs Ministry according to an official repatriation document signed by the two sides.@GermanyDiplo pic.twitter.com/eot9Pzw3Nj
— Dr Abdulkarim Omar (@abdulkarimomar1) March 30, 2022

Der Spiegel reported that the US flew the German citizens on Wednesday to a neighboring country of Syria, where the US has a military base.

They were then transported to Frankfurt, Germany, on a Boeing 737-800 charter plane Wednesday evening.

“I am pleased that we were able to bring a further 27 German children and eight of their mothers back to Germany from the Roj camp in north-east Syria last night,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement on Wednesday.

“I would like to thank everyone who worked on this for months and also took personal risks in the process – as well as our partners on the ground, especially the Kurdish autonomous administration in north-east Syria and our US partners, who once again provided us with logistical support,” she added.

She said the children are, “at the end of the day, victims of IS (ISIS), and they have a right to a better future far from its deadly ideology, and also to live in security, as we would wish for our own children.”

“The mothers must be held accountable for their actions,” she added. “A number of them were taken into custody immediately after arriving in Germany.”

Baerbock also said that due to the operation, the majority of the German children whose mothers are willing to return to Germany have been brought to safety.

“There are now only a few special cases for which we are continuing to work on individual solutions,” she said.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the civilian Autonomous Administration in northeast Syria have publicly called on foreign countries to repatriate their citizens.

Several Western countries have been reluctant to repatriate their citizens due to legal and security risks and domestic opposition to the repatriation of suspected ISIS members.