The decision, after weeks of controversy, did not apply to the children’s parents or other adult French-born fighters.
By James McAuley James McAuley Foreign correspondent focusing on French and European politics and culture Email Bio Follow March 16 at 1:53 PM PARIS — France has repatriated five young children of French-born Islamist extremists who had left to join the Islamic State.
As early as Wednesday, a French deputy interior minister, Laurent Nunez, said that no children would be admitted “for the moment.” The same day, President Emmanuel Macron reiterated the government’s position that children would be admitted on a “case by case basis,” in conjunction with the opinion of international humanitarian aid workers.“The decision was taken in view of the situation of these very young and especially vulnerable children,” read a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
The prevailing argument was that these French citizens should be tried where they were captured, as in the case of Melina Boughedir, a 27-year-old French woman who joined the Islamic State in 2015 and was later captured by Iraqi forces. Boughedir stood trial in Iraq.
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