“
Every minute counts
”: the mother of a woman who left for Syria with her jihadist companion and her children asks for her “
emergency medical repatriation
”, with her four grandchildren.
Read also: The Kurds free Syrian jihadists
“
My daughter has advanced colon cancer.
I solemnly request his repatriation,
”declared Pascale Descamps, resident of Pas-de-Calais.
His 32-year-old daughter left France in 2015 after converting to Islam, with her three children and her jihadist companion, killed a few months later.
Remarried to another member of the Islamic State (IS) group, also killed, she had a fourth child there, Descamps said.
She has been held since March 2019 at the Roj 2 camp, controlled by the Kurds in northeastern Syria.
“
She loses a lot of blood, has a lot of discomfort and has no access to any medicine,
” she
says
.
"
If she is operated on there, she has only a 50% chance of surviving,
" she adds, explaining that her daughter, who has no medical certificate, sends her voice messages "
very irregularly
" via an intermediary number on WhatsApp.
“We
've been trying to get them back for over a year.
We have seized political and justice officials, so far without any response,
”said one of his three lawyers, Me Emmanuel Daoud.
He denounces "
a deliberate choice of the French state, even though an international arrest warrant has been issued against this woman and the Kurdish authorities say they are ready to hand her over to France
".
Descamps assures us that he does not want to “
clear
” his daughter but only that she be “
treated humanely
”.
“
She is accountable and she will assume it.
If she survives, she will go to jail
”.
She also says she is "
very worried
" for her four grandchildren - an 11-year-old girl, and three boys aged 2, 6, and 8 - living "
in inhumane conditions
".
She is ready to ask for their custody to "
raise them in the values of the Republic
".
“
I wish they would go to school.
They want a normal, safe life in their country
”.
About 150 adults and nearly 300 French children are detained in prison or in camps in Syria and Iraq.
The thirty or so children repatriated so far from Syria are mainly orphans or children entrusted by the rare French mothers who have agreed to part with them.
