AANES hands over four ISIS women and their children to Canada
Canada has repatriated several ISIS women and their children from northeastern Syria. The government was obliged to do so by the Canadian Federal Court.
The Canadian government has taken back four women from the north-east of Syria who joined ISIS years ago. The Canadian women and their ten children were handed over to a diplomatic delegation on Wednesday and flown out on Thursday. Two of them were taken into custody after their arrival at Montreal airport on terrorism charges and brought to Brampton near Toronto for a hearing. A judge is expected to order restrictions such as the wearing of an electronic ankle bracelet and participation in a deradicalisation programme for the women on the Tuesday after Easter. As things stand, they are not facing any criminal charges.
The repatriation of the ISIS supporters and their children to Canada had been sued for by relatives. Earlier this year, the Canadian Federal Court then ordered the government to repatriate a total of 23 citizens who have been in prisons or detention camps in north-eastern Syria since the break-up of the territorial rule of ISIS.
Originally, however, two more women and three children with Canadian citizenship were to be handed over to the government delegation on Wednesday. It is unclear why this did not happen. According to their lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, they did not show up at the agreed meeting point. In the case of four detained male ISIS members whose repatriation was ordered by court order - among them the Islamist known as "Jihadi Jack" Jack Abraham Letts - there are still disputes between Canada's government and judiciary that have so far made repatriation impossible.
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) welcomed the repatriation of the Canadian ISIS members and their children. Addressing the humanitarian and security challenges that followed the dismantling of the so-called IS "caliphate" is one of the autonomous administration's top priorities, said Rubel Baho, deputy co-chair of the AANES foreign affairs department. "We expect the countries of origin of ISIS members trapped and interned in our regions to consider this as a common challenge and take back their nationals."
