Wednesday

29th Nov 2023

Hundreds of European children remain stuck in Syria

  • Syria in 2016 (Photo: Reuters/Omar Sanadiki)

Pro-Islamic State Europeans stuck in Syrian camps and prisons may create a "new hotbed of Islamist violence," says an EU internal document, as the plight of some 600 European children there remains dire.

The issue is set to be discussed behind closed doors among EU state delegations in Brussels on Tuesday (16 March).

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The confidential paper was drafted last week by the rotating EU presidency under Portugal and came amid a European Parliament resolution on Syria.

Some 50,000 people worldwide are thought to have heeded the call of the Islamic State to join its caliphate in Syria and Iraq between 2011 and 2016.

The recruitment drive also attracted women, many of them bringing along children, to the region. Others were born into the caliphate to European parents.

With the caliphate now demolished, many have been left behind to languish in squalid north-east Syrian camps and prisons where Islamic State ideology remains entrenched.

Over 64,000 people of mostly women and children from some 57 states are said to be stuck at the Al Hol and Roj camps in northeast Syria.

Of those in Al Hol nearly 230 women and 600 children are a mix EU and or UK nationality, notes the document.

"The camp, or at least parts of it, has been mentioned as a sort of Da'esh mini-caliphate and the longer these people continue living there, the more they will become radicalised," it states.

Another 150 European men are also found in prisons in Syria and Iraq.

Few have managed to return to Europe in 2020 - due, in part, to Covid-19 travel restrictions.

And European governments have largely resisted bringing any children back, citing the belief they should not be separated from their mothers.

"The situation in the camps and prisons in north-east Syria could pose a threat not only in the region but also to the EU," states the document.

For their part, MEPs in their resolution on Syria last week demanded EU states to "urgently repatriate the children" of EU nationalities.

Similar calls were also made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights earlier this year.

Frontex naval operation to look for 'foreign fighters'

The EU border and coast guard agency, or Frontex, has launched a new naval operation called Themis. The operation replaces its surveillance Triton mission but with a bigger emphasis on security and intelligence gathering.

Feature

Mechelen: the Belgian city with no foreign fighters

The picturesque, multicultural city north of Brussels believes it has the right policy mix to prevent Islamist extremism. It wants the rest of Belgium to follow its example.

Opinion

'Discriminated, dehumanised' - Denmark's Syrian refugees

Syrian refugees lives were never easy and now with the Danish government's decision to revoke more than 200 residency permits and shift asylum responsibility to third countries, their prospects of living in peace here are bleaker than ever.

Opinion

'Loss and Damage' reparations still hang in balance at COP28

There is still work to be done — especially when it comes to guaranteeing the Global North's participation in financing Loss and Damage, and ensuring the Global South has representation and oversight on the World Bank's board.

Latest News

  1. The EU's 'no added sugars' fruit-juice label sleight-of-hand
  2. EU belittles Russia's Lavrov on way to Skopje talks
  3. Member states stall on EU ban on forced-labour products
  4. EU calls for increased fuel supplies into Gaza
  5. People-smuggling profits at historic high, EU concedes
  6. EU bets big on fossil hydrogen and carbon storage
  7. How centre-right conservatives capitulate to the far-right
  8. My experience trying to negotiate with Uber

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  2. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?
  3. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  4. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  5. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us