Western Countries Continue to Resist Return of ISIS Children

The refugee camp Al Hol, in northeastern Syria, holds many foreign children and their parents who fled ISIS' last areas of control in the country. Credit: Ivor Prickett for The New York Times
The refugee camp Al Hol, in northeastern Syria, holds many foreign children and their parents who fled ISIS' last areas of control in the country. Credit: Ivor Prickett for The New York Times
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Western Countries Continue to Resist Return of ISIS Children

The refugee camp Al Hol, in northeastern Syria, holds many foreign children and their parents who fled ISIS' last areas of control in the country. Credit: Ivor Prickett for The New York Times
The refugee camp Al Hol, in northeastern Syria, holds many foreign children and their parents who fled ISIS' last areas of control in the country. Credit: Ivor Prickett for The New York Times

Years after their parents left Belgium and France to join ISIS, 18 children were taken from squalid refugee camps in Syria and flown recently to new lives in Belgium and France, drawing widespread attention in those countries as examples of Europe grudgingly accepting the children of its extremists.

But they were the exceptions, not the rule; estimates vary, but 1,300 or more children of European fighters and followers of the self-professed “caliphate” remain trapped in Syria and Iraq. While some European governments have softened their stands on repatriation, marginally, it is still unclear when — or even whether — the children might be able to leave.

The recent airlifts, which took place only after months of negotiation and vetting of the children, illustrate how resistant Western countries still are. On those flights in June, France and Belgium received only children whose extremist parents were dead; most are orphans, and some were taken to ISIS lands by their fathers, who were killed there, while their mothers remained in Europe.

Days earlier, a Belgian team had set up a makeshift clinic in the overcrowded Al Hol camp in northeastern Syria, which holds thousands of current and former ISIS adherents and their family members, providing medical care and psychiatric assessments for the children of Belgian nationals.

“They wanted to come to Belgium,” said Heidi De Pauw, a member of the team. “They kept saying to us, ‘We want to come home.’”

But De Pauw, the chief executive of Child Focus, a center for missing and sexually exploited children, had little hope to offer them, in part because most of them had at least one living parent with them in the camp.

With few exceptions, European countries have refused to take back the adults. The Kurdish authorities who run the major camps have made it plain that they do not want to separate families, and do not want to be left holding stateless parents.

The issue is politically charged across Europe. ISIS survivors, even children, are seen as a threat, no matter how reformed they appear. Theo Francken, a former secretary of state for asylum and migration in Belgium who is a lawmaker for a conservative Flemish party, denounced the recent repatriation, warning that it might signal the return of all ISIS children.

“I say no, no, no,” he tweeted. “Their parents are no longer fellow citizens.”

When ISIS controlled parts of Iraq and Syria, an estimated 41,000 people from other parts of the world left their homes to join the group — about one-third of them from Europe, including the Caucasus. Some took children with them and others had children there. Thousands were killed and thousands more managed to slip away, many of them making their way home and risking prosecution as terrorists.

But as ISIS lost the last of its territory early this year, tens of thousands of survivors crowded into refugee camps that were built for far fewer people. At least 29 children died just in traveling to Al Hol or soon after arriving at the camp, the World Health Organization reported in January.

Violence, disease and despair are common there, and food, medicine — and sometimes even clean water — are scarce. Gerrit Loots, a psychologist who led the Belgian team at Al Hol, said that women still faithful to ISIS threw stones at those who had renounced it.

About 3,000 women and 7,000 children from countries other than Iraq and Syria are held at Al Hol, according to the Kurds and the group Human Rights Watch. Many of them want to return to their home countries. The largest contingents are thought to be Russian and French, while Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium are also among the major nations of origin.

Some women who joined ISIS soured on it, but others believed fervently and even took part in atrocities. Children were indoctrinated and sometimes pressed into service. It can be difficult to determine who is guilty of crimes, who still adheres to radical ideology, and who might change with counseling.

A very few countries, including Kazakhstan and Kosovo, have repatriated many of their people from ISIS territory, including adults. Turkey, Russia and a few others have taken in significant numbers of children recently, mostly orphans, though more remain.

But most countries have taken a harder line. Britain has gone so far as to revoke the citizenship of people who want to return. Many European countries, after first refusing, have said they would take in children, but it has been slow going.

The New York Times



Israeli Plan to Seize Gaza Alarms Many: 'What's Left for You to Bomb?'

Displaced Palestinians snatch bread loaves distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 5, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
Displaced Palestinians snatch bread loaves distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 5, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
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Israeli Plan to Seize Gaza Alarms Many: 'What's Left for You to Bomb?'

Displaced Palestinians snatch bread loaves distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 5, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
Displaced Palestinians snatch bread loaves distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 5, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

An Israeli plan to seize the Gaza Strip and expand the military operation has alarmed many in the region. Palestinians are exhausted and hopeless, pummeled by 19 months of heavy bombing. Families of Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza are terrified that the possibility of a ceasefire is slipping further away.

“What’s left for you to bomb?” asked Moaz Kahlout, a displaced man from Gaza City who said many resort to GPS to locate the rubble of homes wiped out in the war.

Israeli officials said Monday that Cabinet ministers approved the plan to seize Gaza and remain in the Palestinian territory for an unspecified amount of time — news that came hours after the military chief said the army was calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers.

Details of the plan were not formally announced, and its exact timing and implementation were not clear. It may be another measure by Israel to try to pressure Hamas into making concessions in ceasefire negotiations.

The war began after Hamas-led group attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Israel says 59 captives remain in Gaza, about 35 of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s ensuing offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials, who don’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.

“They destroyed us, displaced us and killed us,” said Enshirah Bahloul, a woman from the southern city of Khan Younis. “We want safety and peace in this world. We do not want to remain homeless, hungry, and thirsty.”

Some Israelis are also opposed to the plan. Hundreds of people protested outside the parliament Monday as the government opened for its summer session. One person was arrested.

Families of hostages held in Gaza are afraid of what an expanded military operation or seizure could mean for their relatives.

“I don’t see the expansion of the war as a solution — it led us absolutely nowhere before. It feels like déjà vu from the year ago,” said Adi Alexander, father of Israeli-American Edan Alexander, a soldier captured in the Oct. 7 attack.

The father is pinning some hopes on US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East, set for next week. Israeli leaders have said they don't plan to expand the operation in Gaza until after Trump’s visit, leaving the door open for a possible deal. Trump isn't expected to visit Israel, but he and other American officials have frequently spoken about Edan Alexander, the last American-Israeli held in Gaza who is still believed to be alive.

Moshe Lavi, the brother-in-law of Omri Miran, 48, the oldest hostage still believed to be alive, said the family was concerned about the plan.

“We hope it’s merely a signal to Hamas that Israel is serious in its goal to dismantle its governmental and military capabilities as a leverage for negotiations, but it’s unclear whether this is an end or a means,” he said.

Meanwhile, every day, dozens of Palestinians gather outside a charity kitchen that distributes hot meals to displaced families in southern Gaza. Children thrust pots or buckets forward, pushing and shoving in a desperate attempt to bring food to their families.

“What should we do?” asked Sara Younis, a woman from the southernmost city of Rafah, as she waited for a hot meal for her children. “There’s no food, no flour, nothing.”

Israel cut off Gaza from all imports in early March, leading to dire shortages of food, medicine and other supplies. Israel says the goal is to pressure Hamas to free the remaining hostages.

Aid organizations have warned that malnutrition and hunger are becoming increasingly prevalent in Gaza. The United Nations says the vast majority of the population relies on aid.

Aid groups have expressed concerns that gains to avert famine made during this year's ceasefire have been diminishing.

Like most aid groups in Gaza, Tikeya has run out of most food and has cooked almost exclusively pasta for the past two weeks.

Nidal Abu Helal, a displaced man from Rafah who works at the charity, said that the group is increasingly concerned that people, especially children, will die of starvation.

“We’re not afraid of dying from missiles," he said. "We’re afraid that our children will die of hunger in front of us.”