After more than four years of living in an open air prison, 19 Canadians detained in northeastern Syria are on their way back to Canada, according to CTV sources.
Six women and their 13 children were taken out of Al-Roj camp Tuesday evening by Canadian officials according to one eyewitness account.
Al-Roj is one of several camps and jails operated by Kurdish forces in the region where more than 40,000 suspected ISIS militants and supporters are held. The majority of the detainees are children. The United Nations called on all countries to repatriate their foreign nationals more than two years ago.
RCMP have been at the camp conducting security assessments of the mothers and their children for the past week.
According to a source familiar with the plans, the Canadians are bound for Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal. But the repatriation group is smaller than anticipated.
It is unclear if a 38-year-old Quebec woman and her six children are among the Canadians leaving the camp. She lives in another part of the camp away from most of the other Canadians.
Last week, Global Affairs advised the French-Canadian that her children were eligible for repatriation but she could not accompany them because her security assessment was incomplete.
The woman, who says she has been at the camp since 2018, initially agreed to allow her children to leave the camp without her, but according to her lawyer has since changed her mind.
In an email Tuesday night, Lawrence Greenspon wrote that “Ms.J wants her six children to be repatriated and that she wants to come home to Québec with them.”
“I have asked GAC to take the necessary urgent steps so that Mom can come home with her children,” Greenspon added in the email.
Greenspon calls GAC’s inability to complete the assessment in four months “incredible.” The woman was given written notice of her eligibility for assessment on Nov. 24, 2022.
At that time, Global Affairs acknowledged deteriorating circumstances in Al-Roj camp including threats to the safety of Ms.J and her children, increasing danger in the camp due to the transfer of extremists to the camp and declining sanitary living conditions that resulted in a cholera outbreak.
Also four foreign mothers and their 10 Canadian children remain at the camp. Despite serious health issues with some of the children, the federal government did not extreme the offer of repatriation to the non-Canadian women- only their children.
Meanwhile, the fate of four Canadians remains in limbo. The federal government appealed a court order to repatriate them. The appeal hearing was held last week, but no decision has yet been made.
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