“We’ll solve this problem. We work every day and every hour. We won’t stop until we repatriate all those children,” Kadyrov told Rudaw in the Chechen capital Grozny.
Chechnya is a federal subject of Russia. Around 400 Chechen women and girls are believed to have joined ISIS, many of them dying in fighting and in coalition airstrikes.
Many of those who survived are now in prisons in Iraq and Syria.
“Some of the girls who are now in a Baghdad prison were previously incarcerated by the Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shaabi),” Malika, whose daughter joined the group, told Rudaw in Grozny.
“The girls told us on the phone that there are seven other houses where Hashd imprisons the Chechen girls. There are lots of children and women in these houses. We want to speak to those who have imprisoned our children. We plead with them to return our children.”
Mothers whose daughters joined ISIS insist their daughters are innocent – accusing the girls’ husbands of forcing them to go.
“When our children went to Turkey and then to Syria to join Daesh (ISIS), no one asked them where they were going. No one demanded passports from them. Even our daughters didn’t take their own children’s passports. Some of the mothers died waiting for their daughters to return,” Malika added.
Eight-year-old Amina spent five years with ISIS and inside Iraqi prisons. She was repatriated to Chechnya, but her mother remains in prison in Baghdad.
Eight-year-old Amina spent five years with ISIS and inside Iraqi prisons. She was repatriated to Chechnya, but her mother remains in prison in Baghdad.
“We went to Syria then to Mosul. We went to Tal Afar then to prison in Baghdad. We were sleeping on the ground. We had only one mattress with my mom. Food was sparse. There was nothing. It was hot in prison in Baghdad and there was no air conditioning. When the winter came it was too cold and we had no clothes,” Amina told Rudaw.
The Committee of Russian Mothers, an informal network of women searching for their daughters, estimates up to 600 women and 1,200 children from Russia joined ISIS.
To date, just 60 have returned – most of them children.
Reporting by Khalid Hussein
