Fate of ‘children of the caliphate’ hangs in the balance
FOR YEARS, they heard little from their daughters who joined Islamic State. Now, dozens of families across Europe have received messages from them, desperate to return home.
They are among 650 Europeans, many infants, held by US-backed Kurdish militias in three camps in Syria since IS was routed last year. Unwanted by their Kurdish guards, they are also a headache for officials in Europe.
In letters sent via the Red Cross and in phone messages, the women plead for their children to be allowed home.
In a message played by a woman in Antwerp, Belgium, the chatter of her grandchildren underscores their mother’s pleas.
Another woman in Paris wants to care for three grandchildren, born after her daughter left for Syria in 2014, at the age 18. “They are innocent,” she said. “They had no part in any of this.”
Like other relatives of those held in Syria, the mothers asked to remain anonymous – afraid of being linked to IS and worried their daughters may face reprisals.
The US has taken custody of some, as have Russia and Indonesia, and wants Europe to – fearing camps may breed a new generation of militants.
“We’re telling European governments: ‘Take your people back… They are more of a threat there than home’,” a US counterterrorism official said.
Europe is largely reluctant: there is little sympathy for militants’ families with the trauma of deadly attacks still fresh in many capitals. The children’s fate may be determined by which country their mother came from.
“Absolutely nobody wants them,” said a senior diplomat. “How can you sell to the public that you are helping the families of your enemies?”
However, mounting concern over abandoning hundreds of children with a claim to EU citizenship – most of them under 6 – is pushing governments to quietly explore how to tackle the complexities of bringing them back.
“The threat emanating from children of the caliphate is an unprecedented, very complex one,” said Robert Bertholee, head of the Dutch AIVD intelligence agency. “These children are victims.”
French officials have said they will work to repatriate the children – but not their mothers. Other EU nations are in talks with Kurdish authorities, but the Kurds want them to take back all their nationals – not just the young.
The Red Cross collected about 1 290 messages for families in visits to camps where the women are held. The camps are in Syria under Kurdish control following the defeat of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
“Mommy, Papa, forgive me for everything,” one 23-year-old wrote. “I’ve lived unimaginable things,” she scribbled. “I want to be with you.”
The women paint a grim picture: tuberculosis is rampant while food, baby milk and medical care are in short supply. Some have died.
Said Nadim Houry, director of Human Rights Watch’s counterterrorism project. “You don’t build counterterrorism policy on public opinion.”
Kurdish officials say the foreigners in their custody comprise 900 IS fighters, 500 women and over 1 000 children. Kurdish forces have traded some women back to IS fighters in exchange for prisoners and let others go.
While women made up almost 20% of 5 900 Western Europeans who joined IS – and had at least 566 babies abroad – the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalism found few have returned.
Families in Belgium, France and the Netherlands are suing governments to intervene to get their relatives home.
One mother, in Belgian, said “We are branded the parents of terrorists.”
Calling their cause the Mothers’ Jihad, they plan joint legal action to repatriate their grandchildren.
French psychiatrist Thierry Baubet, treating 40 children in a government programme, said the children are too young to understand the IS stigma. “They talk about bombs, their fathers who died and Islamic State all the time.”