Iraqi authorities repatriated 598 children who belong to Islamic State terrorists

A spokesperson for Iraq’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said that the central government in Baghdad had successfully repatriated nearly 600 children who belong to alleged members of the so-called Islamic State.

According to local Iraqi media, foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed al-Sahaf said the moves were made in coordination with Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council and members of the country’s security.

Sahaf added that a total number of 598 children born to foreign Islamic State fighters had been repatriated to Turkey, Russia, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Germany, France, Sweden, Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine, Algeria, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry had invited the countries mentioned above to receive the children via their missions and embassies abroad, the spokesperson noted.

Iraq has returned children of Islamic State members whose parents had been killed in battle or who are currently in prison.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has previously called on the international community to rise to the occasion and take back nationals who joined the terror group and are currently jailed in Iraq, as well as neighboring Syria.

“We need international cooperation to solve the problem,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during the Paris Peace Forum in November.

“We cannot just ask Iraq and Syria to solve the problem for everyone,” he added. “There must be real international solidarity.”

Iraq declared a military defeat against the Islamic State in December 2017. Since then, Baghdad has condemned many foreign Islamic State fighters to death amid allegations of unfair trials and human rights violations.

Source: Kurdistan 24