INTERVIEW
Ten children of French jihadists who were held in camps for displaced people under Kurdish control in Syria were repatriated to France overnight Sunday to Monday, the French Foreign Ministry announced. "A repatriation is a life saved", welcomes lawyer Marie Dosé, guest of Europe 1 Monday noon. "But I think today of the dozens of children who still live in these camps," she adds.
>> INVESTIGATION - How France organizes the care of children returning from Syria
300 children of French jihadists held in two camps
For her, the "real victory" will only be pronounced when "all these children will be repatriated with their mothers, and will grow up in safety in France". Because according to the lawyer, some 250 children of French jihadists are still held in tents in the camps of Al-Hol and Roj, in the northeast of Syria.
"They live there in unworthy conditions. The children are not vaccinated, not treated, are prey to starvation," warns Marie Dosé. In 2019, 517 people, including 371 children, died in Al-Hol camp, said a Kurdish Red Crescent official in the camp in mid-January.
"Some are orphans, others 'humanitarian cases'"
No details were given on the place of arrival in France of the 10 repatriated children, nor on the circumstances under which they left Syria. "Some are orphans, others are" humanitarian cases ", according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," said Marie Dosé, who said he did not "fully understand" the criteria that govern the "choice" of children to be repatriated.
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The lawyer militates so that all the children can be repatriated with their mothers. "The separation of a mother and her child is already immeasurable ... Imagine a child knowing that his mother and his brothers and sisters continue to suffer in the same tent where he himself suffered." Since the Islamic State group collapsed in March 2019, France has brought back 28 children from Syria. She is reluctant to bring back the approximately 150 adults, men and women, whom she considers accomplices of the Islamic State group.