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The DAA’s foreign office has been in contact with many foreign countries about the issue. However, most European countries have refused to take their citizens back.
So far, Kazakhstan, Russia, the United States, Indonesia, Sudan, and Lebanon have taken back some foreign Islamic State children and wives (and in some cases fighters). Moreover, some Islamic State fighters were transferred to Iraq.
The DAA previously indicated that the presence of those fighters is dangerous for the entire region. This is also the first time children of Islamic State members were taken out of Syria by a non-governmental organization. The DAA earlier stated that only governments could request and take back their citizens.
During a visit to Brussels in November, Abdul Karim Omer, a top Syrian Kurdish official in the Autonomous Administration in Northeast Syria, called on European governments to take back wives and children of Islamic State members.
According to the Syrian Kurdish official, the countries where these Islamic State fighters, wives, and children are from “are not taking responsibility and put all the burden on [the] self-administration.”
Nadim Houry, a terrorism/counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), previously told Kurdistan 24 that local authorities in northeast Syria could not cope with the burden.
“It’s imperative to find alternatives and to prosecute those suspected of grave crimes,” the HRW director noted. “The best place for Europeans would be their home countries.”
The return of Islamic State fighters “is a shared responsibility by home countries and the international coalition,” Houry underlined, not just a responsibility for the authorities in northeast Syria.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
(Additional reporting by Ferhad Ehme from Qamislo)