Ten Belgian children and six mothers have been recovered from a prison camp for captured extremists in Syria

Ten Belgian children and six mothers have been recoveredfrom a prison camp for captured extremists in Syria. Currently, they are being flown home with caution. This operation turned out to be one of the biggest repatriations since the battlefield defeat of the Daesh militant group in 2019. This was followed by a decision made by the Belgium council to secure the return of children under the age of 12-years-old.

 

Hundreds of volunteer fighters from Europe travelled to Syria and Iraq during the Daesh group’s campaign. A lot of women and children were killed and then trapped in camps. Their presence in the camp has turned out to be an embarrassment for many European governments. They have been reluctant to allow citizens with suspected extremist ties to return to their homelands. However, Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander de Croo announced in March that Belgium would do what it could to secure the return of the youngest, describing this as a matter of national security.

 

Officials from the scene explain that extremist monitoring agency OCAM says that the mothers and children who have spent time in the camps need to be kept under watch and that this is easier if they are on Belgian soil. Once they are returned, the mothers are expected to be arrested and charged by anti-terrorism authorities, while the children will be taken in charge by social services.

 

Neither de Croo’s office nor the anti-terror prosecutor’s office was ready to comment on the arrivals that are safely in custody. Heidi De Pauw, of the Child Focus NGO, praised the decision. It was told that the children should be able to leave the dangers of these war zones. After the outbreak of war in Syria in 2011, more than 400 Belgians went there to join ISIS.