On October 20, France repatriated 15 women and 40 children previously detained in Syrian camps. The result of sometimes sordid negotiations that left at least 210 people on site, including 150 children. Among the adults repatriated, thirteen have been imprisoned.
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Thursday, October 20 at dawn, 15 jihadist women and 40 French children detained in camps in northeast Syria were repatriated by the French authorities. It was the most important operation of this type carried out by France to date. The previous one, which had concerned 16 women and 35 minors, on July 5, had marked a major turning point and a change of doctrine: after more than three years of blockage, Paris decided to repatriate all of its nationals and their children detained since the final fall of the pseudo-califat of the Islamic State organization (IS), in March 2019 in Baghouz.
The last repatriation operation, in reality, started Tuesday, October 18. That day, the Kurdish administration of the Roj camp, where western Western women and their children are detained, called several French people with their children. While they are grouped in a large tent drawn up near what is called the “yellow house”, where the administration of the camp, their tents are shot down by Kurdish guards.
The French special forces responsible for extraction, accompanied by civil servants of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, arrived on site Wednesday October 19. There followed a new sorting and sometimes sordid negotiations. Thus, a mother of five is asked, including a 19 -year -old daughter and a seriously sick minor boy, to choose between returning with her four minor children by abandoning her major daughter on the spot or staying with her daughter and three other valid children by letting his sick son leave alone. A massive mobilization of lawyers, including his advice, M e Martin Pradel, with the Quai d’Orsay and the Elysée finally made it possible to repatriate the whole siblings.
Another dramatic case, that of a light disabled woman left on the spot with two young children on the pretext that she hosts her tent her husband, blind and amputated. This man had been tried too impotent to be incarcerated in Hassaké’s high security prison for men. Now French doctrine consists in repatriating women and children, but not adult men.
“improvisation”
The most blatant failure is the one who arrived at the G. family During the night of Wednesday to Thursday, the French authorities called Mr. G. to tell him that his daughter had returned to France with her/her children . But on arrival, his lawyer does not find any trace. In fact, there had been confusion. Mr. G. received an official apology letter two days later.
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