The Defender of Rights returns to the charge about French children held in camps in north-eastern Syria. It calls again for their urgent repatriation. Claire Hédon recalls at the same time that France does not respect the commitments it has made in terms of child protection.
In a statement published this Friday, the Defender of Rights stresses that each day spent in these makeshift camps endangers these children, who are exposed to inhuman and degrading treatment. And in this case, she says, the responsibility of France is engaged.
Nearly 200 minors and a hundred adult women are held in the Roj and Al-Hol camps, managed by the Kurdish authorities, who have also called on France to repatriate its nationals. In fact, they have no intention of judging them, for lack of any particular grievance against them. Nor the means to retain them in good conditions.
A position apart
These are the wives and children of former ISIS fighters. The defender of rights has already intervened before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2021. In February, the latter considered that France was violating its convention and had to take urgent measures.
However, as Claire Hédon reminds us, the executive has never turned away from its case-by-case doctrine. Since 2019, 35 minors have been repatriated: orphans or children of mothers who had agreed to be separated. The defender of rights underlines that France is an unfortunate exception when Belgian, German or Swedish neighbors repatriate adults and children.