Turkish authorities send two Islamic State women and two children back to the Netherlands

Turkey has sent two Dutch women who joined IS forces in Syria five and six years ago back to the Netherlands, Dutch media said on Wednesday. One of the women, who has two children aged three and four, has been stripped of her Dutch nationality and faces deportation to Morocco, NOS said.

Sources told the broadcaster the women are 25-year-old Xaviera S from Apeldoorn and 23-year-old Fatimah H from Tilburg, but this has not been confirmed. H reported to the Dutch embassy in Ankara at the end of October while S was arrested in Turkey in January 2018 and released from jail in July. Both women now face trials for being members of a terrorist organisation and H will be sent back to Morocco after that, NOS said. Her children have been handed over to child social services.

‘Now Turkey has sent these IS members back, we have to do all we can to make sure they are prosecuted for their terrible crimes,’ D66 parliamentarian Sjoerd Sjoerdsma said. ‘This makes it even more imperative that justice minister Ferd Grapperhaus makes sure the International Crime Squad capacity is up to scratch and that the evidence is in order.’ VVD MP Dilan Yesilgoz said the return of the two women again shows how important it is that there are tribunals in the region.

Earlier this month, judges in The Hague said the Dutch government must ‘make all possible efforts’ to repatriate some 56 Dutch children in refugee camps in Northern Syria, but is not required to bring back their mothers.

The Netherlands says it is not safe to enter the area and so far will only help if Dutch nationals report to a Dutch diplomatic mission. The Netherlands also wants Syria to set up a tribunal to deal with jihadis on the ground, but Syria is opposed to the idea.

Source: Dutch News