The Dutch government on Tuesday said that it would repatriate 12 women and 28 children from Syria.
"The cabinet is transferring twelve Dutch women suspected of terrorist offenses and their 28 children to the Netherlands," the government said in a letter to the parliament.
This would make it the largest operation by the Netherlands yet to repatriate families from former territories falling under the so-called ISIS “caliphate.”
“The cabinet wants to make sure that the twelve suspects do not escape punishment,” the ministers said.
"The women will be arrested after arrival in the Netherlands and will be tried,” the government stressed.
The move follows a decision in May last year by a Rotterdam court that the women should be brought back within four months.
The cabinet is not giving out any information about the place from where the women will be brought “for safety and privacy reasons”.
The families of ISIS militants who were captured or killed in Syria and Iraq live in camps controlled by the autonomous Kurdish administration. Al-Hol camp is the most important among them.
The return of the families of militants is a politically sensitive subject in most European countries, including the Netherlands.
Early 2022, the Dutch government repatriated five women and their 11 children from the Roj Camp.
In June 2021, the first woman was brought with her two children from Syria to stand trial in the Netherlands and she received a three-and-a-half-year prison term for joining ISIS.
