What could possibly go wrong? Plenty. Many of the children of Islamic State jihadis have themselves been trained to hate and kill, and to see the world as a battleground between Muslims and unbelievers. What are the chances of their becoming loyal, productive Belgian citizens?
“Belgium takes back six children of Isis fighters from Syrian camps,” Reuters, June 14, 2019:
Six Belgian children of Islamic State members were returned to Belgium on Friday from camps in Syria where US-backed militia are holding thousands of militants and their family members.
The children, ranging in age from six to 18, were left parentless in Syria, making their repatriation less complicated than that of dozens of other Belgian children of Isis members held in Syria’s northern Kurdish region.
“The 6 children from #Syria have just arrived in our country,” Belgium’s foreign minister Didier Reynders tweeted late on Friday. “The children are now being monitored and supervised by the competent local state attorneys & youth support services.”
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) controls the quarter of Syria east of the Euphrates river after repelling Islamic State in a series of advances from 2015 that culminated in March with the group’s defeat at its last territorial enclave in Baghouz, near the Iraqi border.
However, it says it is unable to indefinitely hold the thousands of Isis fighters and members and their families who surrendered during its offensive.
“This must be extended to men and women in our camps and prison, not only children,” Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the SDF, said on Twitter regarding Belgium’s move.
Many of those in custody or held at overcrowded displacement camps in northeast Syria are foreigners, and many remain unrepentant supporters of violent jihad….