‘All children are innocent’

Ottawa called on to rescue 25 Canadian kids trapped in Syria

At least 25 “innocent” Canadian children are trapped in a refugee camp not far from where Turkey has launched a military offensive in northeastern Syria, an international charity said Thursday as it called on Ottawa to act now to rescue them.

Save the Children Canada, which has aid workers on the ground in Syria, said the kids are largely the offspring of Islamic State militants, and some of them are orphans, while others have only one parent.

“All children are innocent and punishing them where they were born or what circumstance they were born in is not our way,” said Bill Chambers, the group’s CEO. “We believe they should be brought home and kept safe.”

The children are largely based in Al-Hawl, a refugee camp about 100 km southeast of the border region where the Turkish incursion is underway.

Many of the children have family members in Canada, Chambers said.

Turkey began a military offensive Wednesday into northern Syria against U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces who are holding more than 10,000 Islamic State militants, including some 2,000 foreigners.

There are over two dozen detention facilities in northeastern Syria.

Turkey’s president said Thursday his country would keep in custody Islamic State fighters who should be jailed while deporting others to their countries of origin — if they’d accept them.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said women and children of Islamic State would go through “a rehabilitation program.”

Chambers said other counties such as Belgium, Italy, Australia, Germany and Denmark have all repatriated children caught up in the long-running conflict.

He said Save the Children has been in touch with the offices of Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale over the years about the fate of the Canadian children in Syria, but nothing has changed.