Tunisian President Kais Saied has come under a wave of sharp criticism after he received six Tunisian ISIS children who were repatriated from neighboring Libya.
Criticism did not even spare the children who are not older than 12.
This came to express overwhelming popular rejection of the return of Tunisian fighters from fighting in hotbeds and their children who were raised in the battlefields.
Many in Tunisia condemned Saied for receiving the children at Carthage Palace, the presidential palace usually used to receive and host high-profile figures.
On the other hand, an official press statement stated that Saied stressed the importance of taking all necessary measures to provide psychological awareness and health care for these children, before handing them over to their families.
Tripoli-based authorities in Libya handed over to Tunisia on Thursday six Tunisian children of militants killed in the city of Sirte in 2016.
Six Tunisian children, aged three to 12 years old, along with a dozen others of different nationalities, had for three years been cared for by the Red Crescent in Misrata.
The issue was criticized by NGOs in Libya and Tunisia, which accused Tunisian officials of “dragging their feet” on efforts to repatriate the children.
The Red Crescent said Thursday it met with a Tunisian delegation that traveled to Misrata to repatriate the children.
In 2018, the Rescue Association of Tunisians Trapped Abroad noted that approximately 105 Tunisian nationals, among whom are 83 children and 22 women, are left stranded abroad after they had joined the terror group ISIS.
