Ottawa repatriates six Canadian children from Syria

Global Affairs Canada confirmed Tuesday that it had “taken extraordinary measures” to repatriate six Canadian children who were in a camp in northeast Syria.

The return to Canada of the children, who arrived safely at Montreal-Trudeau airport during the night, was carried out in collaboration with the United States. The latter, for their part, carried out an operation to repatriate 11 of their citizens from Syria in addition to nationals of Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, a group of which the six children were part.

Their mother stayed in Syria. According to Canadian lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, cited by CBC News, the woman was not allowed to return to Canada after failing a security assessment.

According to the lawyer, the Canadian government decided not to repatriate the woman because she adhered to extreme ideological beliefs and that it could represent a risk to the public. Mr. Greenspon added that the government had not provided any details on how it arrived at this decision.

Host family

A family was chosen in Canada to take care of the six children. Speakers from the Polarization Clinic were also present when they got off the plane. The Clinic, which reports to the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS), is made up of social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists and child psychiatrists who are experts in issues of social polarization.

Now it’s about protecting children’s privacy and ensuring they receive the support and care they need to start a new life in Canada, writes Global Affairs Canada. The ministry adds that it is working with NGOs and social services, including child welfare services and local shelters, to facilitate reception, housing and other support services”,”text”:”several Canadian provincial authorities, NGOs and services social services, including child welfare services and local shelters, to facilitate reception, housing and other support services”}}”>several Canadian provincial authorities, NGO and social services, including child welfare services and local shelters, to facilitate intake, housing and other support services.

Highlighting the contribution of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to the success of the operation, Global Affairs Canada also thanked the United States for their assistance in the repatriation of Canadians and for their valuable support throughout this process.

In a statement released following the repatriation, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken stressed that around 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children, are still detained in the displaced persons camps of ‘al-Hol and Roj in Syria.

Several of them are children of fighters and sympathizers of the Islamic State armed group who had proclaimed a caliphate in 2014 over vast lands conquered in Iraq and Syria. It took more than five years of fighting for a coalition of around fifteen countries, including Canada, to retake the territories conquered by the Salafist terrorist movement.

As governments undertake the repatriation of their nationals, we urge consideration and flexibility to ensure that, wherever possible, family units remain intact.

For Alex Neve, a Canadian human rights lawyer and former secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, the return of the six children is a good newsbut also of a blatant missed opportunity to ensure all Canadians and their mothers are repatriated from northeastern Syria.

Alexandra Bain, from the group Families Against Violent Extremismwhich campaigns for the return of Canadians detained in northeast Syria, also welcomed this news.

We are pleased that these innocent children have finally been returned to Canada, and we will continue to advocate for the immediate return of their mothershe said in an email.

Bain added that her group would continue to advocate for the return of remaining Canadian children (those whose mothers are not Canadian) held in the camps, and the handful of Canadian men who remain in prisons.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, declared that these children experienced a very difficult situation .

I have repeatedly said that I am extremely concerned about the children in the camps in northeast Syria. It is therefore because they have gone through extremely difficult times that I will not make any further comments. I just want their well-beingconcluded the minister.

With information from CBC News