Two Swedish women and two children “from ISIS families were handed over to a delegation from the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” read a tweet from Abdulkarim Omar, co-chair of the Kurdish administration’s foreign office.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested thousands of ISIS fighters and their wives and children when they took control of the group’s last stronghold in Syria in March 2019. Most of these people are held at al-Hol, which is home to more than 60,000 people - mostly women and children of different nationalities.
Earlier this month, a senior Iraqi official warned of the threat of children residing in the camp, describing their prolonged stay as a “ticking bomb.”
Al-Hol has been branded a breeding ground for terrorism, with human rights groups warning of squalid conditions at the camp.
There have been repeated calls from Kurdish and US officials asking the international community to repatriate their nationals from al-Hol, but only a few countries have responded positively as they are worried about security concerns.
Nine orphaned Russian children from ISIS families were repatriated from Rojava in late February.
