France: new action for the repatriation of children stranded in Syria
Women and children at Roj camp, in northeastern Syria, March 28, 2021. AFP - DELIL SOULEIMAN
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2 min
More than 200 French children whose mothers have radicalized are today stranded in Syria in the Roj and Al-Hol camps.
Only 35 of them have been repatriated.
About forty people, including 25 personalities, mobilized to convince the authorities to repatriate them to France.
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In the meantime, one operation involves sponsoring children stranded in the Roj and Al-Hol camps in northeastern Syria.
For now, 25 personalities have committed to follow their path.
All have also written a letter to President Emmanuel Macron urging him to repatriate them before the freezing winter, the fourth for some.
Among the “godfathers” involved are movie personalities: Jacques Doillon, Mia Hansen-Love, Audrey Fleurot, Carole Bouquet, Charles Berling, Philippe Torreton, etc.
There are also writers Dan Franck and Marie Desplechin.
Each has received photos, sound recordings and other details of these children detained in the camp which houses tens of thousands of displaced people, including families of foreign jihadists from the Islamic State group.
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Respect for international rules
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Suzanne has her four grandchildren stranded there. And she does not understand this political choice. “
It's quite unimaginable to think that these children can endanger France. We are talking about innocent children who are victims, who are completely traumatized by what they have gone through, she
believes.
There is no care, no education, a completely hostile climate. So, in fact, the psychological and health wounds they have are getting worse. Until when are we going to leave them there and why this obstinacy in leaving them there?
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It is the same incomprehension for the producer Fabienne Servan-Schreiber. She is one of the godmothers of this operation. “
A minimum of human rights and respect for international rules means that we should bring them back to France even if obviously their mothers will have to be tried. But the children have nothing to do with it and I am upset, shocked and scandalized, as a mother, as a woman, and as a French citizen. And we are abandoning them!
», She protests.
Malnutrition, disease, health insecurity, fires are the common lot of the Roj and Al-Hoj camps, where 62 children have died since early 2021, according to a report published at the end of September by the NGO Save the Children.
90% of French children held in camps in Syria are under 12 years old.
The collective hopes for an answer before the onset of winter.
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