Two Dutch IS women and their two children were brought back to the Netherlands from northern Syria today. They joined an American operation in which 11 American women and children were also collected.
Minister Yesilgöz of Justice and Security wrote this to the House of Representatives. The women and children were held in a detention camp in northern Syria. Thousands of ex-IS members still live there. The Netherlands has brought back women and children several times in recent years. The last time this happened was in November 2022. “There was now a possibility of transfer with the help of the US,” the minister writes. The American Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that it has 11 Americans, 4 Dutch, 6 Canadians and a Finnish man have been retrieved in one joint operation.
The two women were arrested and imprisoned in the Netherlands. They will be tried for their participation in the terrorist organization IS. For years, Dutch policy was that the government did not cooperate in the return of Dutch people who had gone to Syria to join IS.
Close files
However, the women filed lawsuits stating that they wanted to be present at their trial in the Netherlands. Judges then ruled that if the women were not given the opportunity to return, their files would be closed. The Ministry of Justice then feared that the women would one day appear in court again and decided to cooperate in their return. Last week, the Rotterdam court imposed prison sentences of 2.5 and 3.5 years on two Dutch sisters who returned from Syria.
About twenty women and their children have been collected in various operations in recent years. The last flight was in November 2022, with 12 women and 28 children.
After arrival, the women are detained in the special women’s wing of the prison in Zwolle. The children are handed over to the Child Protection Council and are cared for by family or by Youth Care.
Another 25 Dutch in Syrian cells
According to the AIVD intelligence service, approximately 25 adult Dutch men and women are currently living in detention camps or prisons in northern Syria. These camps and prisons are under the control of the local Kurdish authorities. They want to get rid of the women and children and have been asking Europe and America for years to pick up all their IS fighters who have left. The future of the detained men is unclear. They have often been held in overcrowded cells for years, but there is no prospect of trial. Two Dutch men have now also initiated procedures to return to the Netherlands.
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Tags: women brought Netherlands Domestic
