After the military victory of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) over ISIS, 11,000 ISIS jihadists and 72,000 family members and children ended up arrested in self-governing areas. While the jihadists are held in prisons, the women and children are in refugee camps. Among them are people from 54 different countries. At the moment, the fate of foreign ISIS members and their relatives is being discussed.

In recent months, several foreign women and children within ISIS have been transferred to their countries of origin.

In late May, 148 women and children of ISIS members were returned to Uzbekistan.

The autonomous administration of northern and eastern Syria handed over two women and six children with US citizenship to the United States at the beginning of June. The repatriation of women and children from the battered "Islamic State" had come at the request of the US.

The Norwegian government has already signed a repatriation agreement with Northeast Syria's self-government. The Autonomous Administration Foreign Relations Bureau has handed over 5 children to Norwegian government authorities on 3 June.

Denmark has on Sunday retrieved a twelve-year-old child whose parents are imprisoned in Rojava and who are members of the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist militia and have Danish citizenship.

A representative from the Department of Consular Services at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs arrived yesterday for an official visit to speak with the North and East Syrian Autonomous Administration about the repatriation of children of imprisoned Danes. The meeting took place at the Bureau of External Relations of the Autonomous Administration in the northern Syrian city of Qamishlo.

In addition to Abdulkarim Omar and Emel Dade, the two foreign affairs leaders, Nojîn Mihemed from the Women’s Defense Units YPJ participated in the meeting. Dade said after the meeting: "We hope that this visit will contribute to the development of the relationship between the autonomous administration and the Danish Government." The child was then handed over to the Danish delegation at the Sêmalka border crossing.

Repatriation of ISIS orphans to Germany?

The Federal Government, too, has for the first time agreed to take children from ISIS members back to Germany after months of inaction. According to information from NDR, WDR and Süddeutscher Zeitung, the Federal Foreign Office explained this in the context of a currently ongoing proceedings at the Administrative Court in Berlin.

The Federal Foreign Office responded to the appeal of the grandparents of two underage orphans, who are currently staying in the Hol refugee camp in the canton of Hesekê. Their mother is said to have died in the fighting over the last ISIS enclave al-Bagouz in Deir ez-Zor countryside.

To date, the Federal Foreign Office has justified its own inaction by failing to provide consular assistance on Syrian soil. During the trial in Berlin, they declared that they were still unable to "act directly" but had been trying for months to seek a solution with the help of non-governmental organizations.

117 children with German citizenship in northern Syria and Iraq

According to information from WDR, the Federal Government has for the first time a more detailed overview of the number of children of German ISIS jihadists who are currently in prison camps and prisons in northern Syria and Iraq. So far, the numbers were based rather on estimates.

Accordingly, there are 117 children within ISIS, for whom a German citizenship is accepted because of at least one German parent.