#Syria's Autonomous Administration hands over six women and 16 children of #Belgium citizenship with links to #ISIS to the Belgian government. #AANES @UN https://t.co/yjdKMyEPdz
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) June 21, 2022
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) handed over, on Monday, six Belgian women and 16 children of ISIS families to the Belgian government.
This came after a visit by a delegation of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs headed by Hubert Cooreman, ambassador of Belgium in
...The land area formerly occupied by the state of Lebanon, before that Phoenicia...Belgium’s judicial authorities said on Tuesday they have repatriated six women with 16 children of Belgian citizenship who were held in Syria.
"On June 20, the AANES handed over 6 Belgian women and 16 children of ISIS families to a delegation from the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs," said Abdulkarim Omar, co-chair of the AANES Department of Foreign Relations, in a tweet.
The AANES was first formed in 2014 in the Kurdish-majority regions of Afrin, Kobani and Jazira in northern Syria following the withdrawal of the government forces. Later, it was expanded to Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) defeated ISIS militarily.
The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said this was the second repatriation operation after the one that took place in July 2021, when Belgian authorities took back six mothers and 10 children.
The AANES handed over the Belgian citizens "after signing the official handover document between both sides," Omar added.
In 2021, the AANES repatriated 324 children and women of ISIS families to their countries.
| The Times of Israel adds: |
All the children are under 12 years old. They were taken with the women from the Kurdish-controlled al-Hol camp to cross the Iraqi border by road before boarding the plane, a judicial source told AFP. They were handed over to the jurisdiction of the Belgian court services on arrival in the country overnight.
The children were to undergo medical examinations before being handed over to youth protection services.
Belgian authorities say returning children must be done for "humanitarian reasons," and that repatriation operations are also as a matter of national security since it’s easier to monitor people who have spent time in Syria when they are on home soil.
From 2012 onwards, more than 400 Belgians headed to Syria to fight for the IS group, making it one of the European countries that saw the largest number of people go.
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AANES: 2022-06-19 After it was liberated from ISIS, the city of Kobani, northern Syria, starts holding cultural activities
AANES: 2022-06-13 Unidentified gunmen killed a commander of the International Security Forces
AANES: 2022-06-10 Turkish Drone Hits Qamishli In NE Syria, Injuring Five People