Not a week goes by without a rumor of escape or child abduction, news of a murder or echoes of a hunger strike escaping from the inmate camps of the Islamic State (IS) organization in Syria. However, the question of the families of European jihadists, under the care of the Syrian Kurdish forces, remains a heavy taboo both at the headquarters of the European Union, in Brussels, and in the capitals concerned. Starting with France, which occupies the first EU contingent with more than 120 women and more than 300 children on site. The fate of men is not even mentioned as there is a consensus not to repatriate them.
Women and children especially, that is another matter. The announcement, on March 4, by the liberal Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, that his country would repatriate all children under 12, that is to say all Belgian minors currently in the camps Northeastern Syria, has opened a breach in Europe. After Finland, which has already repatriated six women and twenty children since 2019 and still has half a dozen women and a dozen children there, it is the second EU member to display such a goal.
Brussels evokes about thirty children while another count, carried out in October 2020, totaled 37. “To leave them there is to ensure that they become the terrorists of tomorrow”, Mr. De Croo justified. The situation of women will be examined ” case by case “. Twenty-one Belgians are believed to be in the hands of Kurdish forces, half in Al-Hol camp, the other half in Roj camp.
Mr. De Croo’s announcement, apparently due to the entry of environmentalists and socialists into the government, was all the more astonished as, until now, Belgium had sided with the countries resolutely hostile to repatriation, like France, Germany, Denmark and Spain. In European circles, what appeared to be Belgium’s sole rider did not arouse much enthusiasm. No country has, at this stage, expressed its intention to emulate the government of Mr De Croo. At most, some diplomats would have approached Belgium for ” good understand ” his approach or “Be reassured”, says an expert.
” A positive point “
All initiatives with a view to possible joint action by Europeans in this area have been blocked for several years. The last discussions within an “ad hoc” committee date from January and were limited to an exchange of information. For French diplomacy in Brussels, there is no question of departing from the principle according to which “The subject is linked to the competence of the States”.
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