READ RELEVANT INFORMATION ON THE CHILDREN'S SITUATION
5 danish children remain in captivity in the Syrian prison camps. The five children, that are between 3 and 5 years old, are all entitled to danish citizenship. At birth, their parents have danish citizenship, and are thus Denmarks responsibility. The children are all imprisoned in the camps with their mothers. All children have been in captivity for more than 3 years, and one child was born in the prison camp.
How did the children end up in a prison camp? The parents alledgedly travelled to Syria to live in the newly proclaimed caliphate. When the caliphate fell, the women and children were imprisoned in the kurdisk controlled prison camps, al-Roj and al-Hol. Their captivity has been outside of judicial trials.
About 10.000 foreigners from more than 40 countries are imprisoned in the Kurdish controlled camps in Northeastern Syria. 8700 of these people are children.
According to the Danish Intelligence Service, PET, and the Ministry of Justice, around 25 children affiliated with Denmark are currently staying in the prison camps, primarily Al-Roj and Al-Hol. In total, 50 children with Danish citizenship or with an affiliation to Denmark are living in these camps, the surrounding areas in Syria, or the neighbouring countries. The Danish children are between 0 to 14 years old. The majority are under five.
According to PET, 12 adults with Danish citizenship are currently imprisoned, mainly in the Kurdish controlled area in Northeast Syria, but also in the neighbouring countries.
According to PET, at least 159 Danes have left Denmark to join the Islamic militant groups in Syria and Iraq. Almost half of these people have left the area again. It has been estimated, that a third of these people have been killed.
12 people in Denmark have been convicted of joining Islamic State, or for attempting to join the Caliphate. There are no occasions in Denmark, where people, who have returned from the war in Syria, have been involved in terror afterwards. There are a few examples in other European countries.
The majority of the acts of terror taking place in the West during the last couple of years have not been committed by people who have been to the conflict zones.
In October 2021, 14 danish children and their mothers were brought home to Denmark. The mothers were immediately charged and taken into custody by the danish police. The children were caught by the danish social authorities, municipalities and their families in Denmark. Today, all children are thriving despite their exceptional and gruesome beginning of life. RTC continues to remain in close contact with the children and their relatives.
Enhedslisten, SF, De Radikale and Alternativet agrees that the Danish children should be repatriated to Denmark - also if it means that the mother has to come along.
Before May 2021 the Danish government refused to repatriate the Danish children from the camps as long as it meant that the mothers would also be repatriated. But after a consistent pressure from the public and from organisations such as RTC, the government made a task force whose purpose was to determine whether the children could be brought home without the mothers. The task force evaluated that the children could in fact not be brought home without the children. This resulted in the governments decision to repatriate 14 danish children and their tree mothers who all still have their Danish citizenship.
Denmark has repatriated an 11-month-old orphan and an injured 13-year-old boy. Furthermore, the French authorities have repatriated two orphans with French and Danish background in cooperation with Danish authorities.
The autonomy of the Kurds has repeatedly appealed to the European countries to get their citizens home. They do not wish to separate the minors from their parents unless the child is an orphan.
USA, UN and many humanitarian organizations encourage the countries to repatriate their citizens. Especially children. The circumstances in the camps have been criticized by many and named Hell on Earth. They do not have clean water to drink or enough food. 371 children died in the Al-Hol camp, just in 2019.
ALL FACTS ARE GATHERED FROM DANISH AND INTERNATIONAL AUTHORITIES AND MEDIA, AS WELL AS FROM RTC'S OWN OBSERVATIONS IN SYRIA AND CONVERSATIONS WITH THE FAMILIES.
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