Dutch minister refuses US offer to help repatriate ISIS women and their children in Syria
Although US assistance in sending the women and children to the Netherlands by plane would limit risks to Dutch diplomats, who would then not have to travel to the “unsafe northeast Syria,” said Grapperhaus, there would still be other risks involved.
He said it also would be problematic to create relations with “non-recognized, separatists groups and or entities that could create diplomatic risks in relations with countries in the region.”
Most likely, he was referring to Turkey, which opposes the People’s Protection Units (YPG). The group provides the military leadership for the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who control camps in Syria where tens of thousands of the women and children are now held.
Turkey considers the YPG to be the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), against which it has fought in a decades-long conflict over Kurdish rights in Turkey. The YPG has denied these links to the PKK and has often accused Turkey of supporting the Islamic State.
On Wednesday, Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said his government would not push for a NATO investigation into Turkey’s possible links to the Islamic State after a report alleged 40 former members were among the ranks of Turkish-backed forces now occupying the northwestern Syrian city of Afrin.
Read More: Dutch government debates alleged Turkish support for former ISIS members in Afrin
“Turkey is and remains an important partner in the fight against ISIS, including as a member of the anti-ISIS coalition. Turkey has been seriously affected by ISIS terrorism and is taking action against this,” Blok stated.
Member of the Party for Freedom (PVV), Raymond de Roon, had asked the Dutch government to clarify whether Turkey had trained, recruited, and armed former Islamic State members after the allegations were made in the report, published by the Rojava Information Centre (RIC).
Both the US and SDF have called on countries in the European Union to bring home thousands of their nationals who joined the Islamic State which the Kurdish-led forces captured in Syria, as Iraq has done on a limited scale.
However, most European states have been reluctant to bring back the fighters, women, and their children who are stuck in Syria.
According to Grapperhaus, Italy is so far the only EU member state that has repatriated any of its citizens who fought with the group. In June, it accepted only one of them, named Samir Bougana, after he was transported by US military plane to Italy.
Many EU countries fear that due to a lack of evidence, Islamic State members could be quickly released once they appear in court after returning home.
In late July, the head of a UN team probing the Islamic State’s crimes in Iraq called for the trial of the group’s members in an international tribunal similar to that in Nuremberg that prosecuted prominent Nazi figures after World War II.
Editing by John J. Catherine