Germany repatriates Islamic State bride and children from Syria
An “Isis bride” and her three children arrived back in Germany on Saturday, marking the first case of Berlin assisting in the repatriation of an adult Islamist from war-torn Syria.
The German government confirmed to news agency DPA that the mother and children arrived safely at Frankfurt Airport after boarding a flight from northern Iraq. They had originally been living in a refugee camp in the Kurdish-controlled area of northern Syria.
European governments have generally refused to take back any citizens who joined the Islamist terror group during their insurgency in northern Syria and Iraq in the years from 2012 onward, in some cases stripping them of their citizenship.
But in Germany, where courts have a high degree of power to overturn government policy, a ruling from early November forced Angela Merkel's government into a rethink. A Berlin court ordered the government to take the 30-year-old mother back along with her three children, dismissing the government's insistence that she posed a security threat.
Germany's foreign ministry had initially stated that it was only prepared to organise the return of the children, aged eight, seven and two. But the judges ruled that the traumatised children are dependant on the protection provided by their mother, arguing that the constitutionally enshrined protection of the family trumped security concerns.
Prosecutors have opened investigations against the woman on suspicion of joining a foreign terror unit and neglecting the duty of care to her children. According to local media reports, she comes from the central state of Hesse and left for Syria in 2014 along with her two oldest children. The third child was born while she lived in the Islamists’ self-proclaimed caliphate.
A spokesperson for the Frankfurt prosecution service told DPA that no arrest warrant had been issued for her.
Up until now Germany has arranged for a few children of Isis members to be brought home. In August three orphans and a sick child with German parentage were flown home. Adult Isis members have also recently returned, but only after being deported by Turkey.
In other European countries, including France and the Netherlands, courts have dismissed legal attempts to force repatriations, stating that such rulings would interfere in an area of government prerogative.
The news is nonetheless likely to increase pressure on the British government, which has resisted efforts to bring back around 60 children believed to be stranded in camps in northern Syria.
Home secretary Priti Patel has reportedly cited security concerns for her refusal to countenance rescue operations for children, a stance that has come in for hefty criticism from rights groups.
