Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) debate together with the subcommittees on Human Rights (DROI) and Security and Defence (SEDE) on the situation of children of foreign fighters held in Syria and Iraq, and their possible return or repatriation to the EU, in the European Parliament in Brussels. Experts from the UN Refugee Agency, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator office, Belgium’s Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis as well as Save the Children will join the discussion

Children of foreign fighters held in Syria and Iraq and possible return/repatriation to the EU: extracts from the joint debate

SOUNDBITE (French), Nathalie LOISEAU (RE, FR), What is our responsibility, we Europeans? Can we leave them to languish in camps that are subjected to the most devastating influences, the most atrocious abuse and deprivation? We have a duty to act. Some Member States have made attempts to bring back the most vulnerable and these attempts must be welcomed. But these attempts also ran into difficulties. And these difficulties must be known, especially as they have worsened. Insecurity in the camps and in the area, refusal of some women, of many women, to let the children go.

SOUNDBITE (French), Maria ARENA (S&amp;D, BE), Children - whose parents have no doubt committed crimes - remain children, remain above all children and victims and as such, they must be protected. The reports of international specialized and humanitarian organizations abound on the psychological impact that situations of conflict of war and extreme violence have on the development of children, on the medium and long-term consequences for their adult life and of this fact, about the consequences on our societies.

SOUNDBITE (English), Marie Dominique PARENT, Human Rights Officer, Regional Office for Europe, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights , Starting with the situation on the ground, we are, of course, talking of children stranded in two countries that are facing severe humanitarian and security challenges at a massive scale. In Iraq, approximately 1.8 million internally displaced people and 6.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. Protection and security have remained the overarching humanitarian priority, which continue to limit the ability of people to safely and voluntarily return home. And in this context, the recent Turkey military operation have added to the emergency of the situation by adding thousands of families fleeing from Syria into Iraq.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christina HOEHN, Principal advisor, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, There is also the risk of a clandestine and undetected relocation and return of foreign fighters and family members. Therefore, it's crucial that the foreign fighters and the family members get detected at the EU's external borders. The EU counter-terrorism coordinator and the commission sent a letter to COZY encouraging the member states to insert better feed information into the SCHENGEN and information system that they receive from the US via Interpol. Also on foreign fighters that are not Europeans and we encourage the US to share as much as possible contextual battlefield information.

SOUNDBITE (English), Paul VAN TIGHELT, Director, Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis (OCAM) Belgium, There are different perspective. There is not only this humanity and humanitarian perspective towards the children. There are different perspectives, political geopolitical perspective and so on, and ended up talking about children is of course, talking about the mothers. And when we talk about the mothers and fathers, then we have to make the consultation that there is less political consensus about them. Yet for the adults, I repeat, seeing what I said in the beginning, we should individualize an objectivise and we should avoid the mistake to put everybody or everything in the same pot.

SOUNDBITE (English), Paul VAN TIGHELT, We see that there are mothers that are already in camps for almost longer than two years. And these mothers, we have credible information that they really rejected the ideology and that they want to return. Others are still or we have information that they could still be hard-core terrorists or ideological hardliners. And that goes, of course, mostly for them, which arrived, which were captured after the fall of Bagus in March of this year.

SOUNDBITE (English), Paul VAN TIGHELT, It's so crucial, the exchange of information since it has really become difficult to have accurate information. The last weeks after the recent events. Cooperation is necessary, is a need in the field of negotiations that we do with the countries, the member states in separate order, or we do with Turkish or Iraqi authority or Kurdish forces. This international cooperation is important in the field of putting in place systems of repatriation. Lots of countries, it has already been mentioned, already repatriated children. These operations are complex, delicate, and at least I think we should share our experience and practices in this matter. And my question is, do we do that enough?

Datum evenement	7-11-2019
Reference:	I180015V
Formaat:	16:9 format
Copyright:	© European Union
copyrightYear:	2019

Children of foreign fighters held in Syria and Iraq and possible return/repatriation to the EU: extracts from the joint debate

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