More than a hundred women and children have been returned to their homeland from Syria

According to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan, on May 21, 2023, a second group of citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan, consisting of 104 people (29 families), including women, adolescents, and young children, was returned home by a special plane from the Syrian Arab Republic. They were met at the International Airport in Dushanbe by Deputy Prime Minister Matlubakhon Sattoriyon, Assistant to the President for Social Development and Public Relations Emomali Nasriddinzoda, Human Rights Commissioner in Tajikistan Umed Bobozoda, and other officials.

In 2019, Tajik authorities repatriated 80 children, and in June 2022, they returned 146 people (42 women and 104 children) from camps in Syria and Iraq.

Photo: Internet

After the emergence of the ISIS group, dozens and even hundreds of young citizens of Tajikistan joined the ranks of the terrorist organization ISIS and went to Iraq and Syria with their wives and children. After most of the men were killed or imprisoned for long terms, women and children were left stranded in closed camps and prisons in Syria and Iraq.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Tajik women in prisons in Iraq had gone on hunger strike. In a video posted on social media, a group of 8 women with covered faces stated that they were being held in the Ar-Rusafa prison in Baghdad. They claimed that they were innocent and unjustly sentenced to imprisonment.

“On April 24, we, citizens of Tajikistan, prisoners of the women’s prison Ar-Rusafa in Baghdad, went on hunger strike in protest against fabricated charges and unjust punishment and demanded our immediate release,” the statement said.

Previously, the Head of the UN called on all countries whose citizens are still in the Syrian Al-Hol camp to do everything possible for their repatriation. Many of those living in the camp are wives and children of former ISIS fighters. The conditions in Al-Hol are very harsh, and people are suffering from malnutrition, he noted.