ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States, Canada, the Netherlands and Finland on Tuesday repatriated a total of 22 nationals, affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS), from northeast Syria (Rojava), with the majority being children. “Today the United States repatriated 11 U.S. citizens from northeast Syria, including five minors. Additionally, we resettled in the United States the nine-year-old non-U.S. citizen sibling of one of the U.S. citizen minors. This is the largest single repatriation of U.S. citizens from northeast Syria to date,” said the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement on Tuesday. “As a part of this operation the United States also facilitated the repatriation of six Canadian citizens, four Dutch citizens, and one Finnish citizen, among them eight children,” Blinken added. The Kurdish autonomous administration’s foreign affairs office said in a statement on Tuesday that a delegation from US and some European countries visited Rojava on Monday and were handed 22 ISIS-linked people. “The Government of Canada has taken extraordinary measures to repatriate 6 Canadian children from northeastern Syria. The focus is now on protecting the children’s privacy and ensuring they receive the support and care needed to begin a new life here in Canada,” said Global Affairs Canada in a statement. It thanked Rojava authorities for their “valuable support throughout this process.” The Finnish foreign ministry said the person it repatriated is an adult man “who was taken to Syria as a child in 2014. He is not suspected of criminal activity in Finland or in Syria.” "The person will pay for his return transport at his own cost in accordance with the Finnish Consular Services Act," it elaborated. The Netherland’s justice and foreign affairs ministers said in a letter to the speaker of the parliament that the government had repatriated “two women suspected of terrorist crimes… The children of these suspects have also been repatriated to the Netherlands.” They added that the two women were immediately detained and their children were handed over to the Child Protection Council. "Their transfer to the Netherlands aims to prevent these suspects from escaping accountability," the ministers clarified. Thousands of people from around the world affiliated with ISIS live in camps in Rojava, the largest of which is the sprawling al-Hol camp that has more than 40,000 residents. Despite repeated calls from Rojava and American officials for governments to repatriate their citizens, only a few have done so. The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) late last month commended the Tajikistan government for repatriating 50 of its citizens. Hundreds of Tajikistanis joined ISIS when it seized control of swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014. The extremist group was territorially defeated in 2019 with the help of the US-led global coalition, but it still poses threat to the security of the region. The Tajikistan government has repatriated a total of 304 of its nationals, according to the Rojava Information Centre. Iraqis and Syrians make up the majority of the ISIS-linked people held at al-Hol. The camp has been branded a breeding ground for terrorism. Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji said in March that around 20,000 Iraqis below the age of 18 are still at al-Hol. He described them as “time bombs.” Iraq has repatriated nearly 9,000 of its nationals from the notorious camp so far, according to data collected by Rudaw English.
