Four German women who had joined the Islamic State (IS) group were arrested in Frankfurt, the federal prosecutor's office announced Thursday, March 31, the day after a repatriation operation of 10 women and 27 children detained in a Kurdish camp in the north- east of Syria.
Read alsoA jihadist who left for Syria at the age of 15 tried in Germany
These four women, one of whom also has Moroccan nationality, were arrested when they got off the plane on Wednesday, the prosecution said, while one of them is suspected in particular of crimes against humanity for having enslaved a woman from the Yazidi Kurdish minority in Mosul, Iraq.
Earlier, the Foreign Ministry announced the repatriation "
in an extremely difficult operation
" of 27 German children and ten mothers detained in the Kurdish-controlled Roj camp in Syria, one of the largest operations of this kind carried out by Germany.
Overcrowded and unsanitary camp
“
These 27 children are ultimately victims of ISIS, and they have the right to a better future, away from its murderous ideology, and to a safe life, as we wish for our own children
,” commented the head of diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock, in a brief press release.
She said "
the majority of German children
" living in the overcrowded and unsanitary camp in northeast Syria had now been repatriated.
“
There are only a few special cases left for which we continue to work on individual solutions
,” she added.
Read alsoFourteen years in prison for Kevin Guiavarch, French pioneer of jihadism
Germany carried out a total of five operations which brought back 91 people, the majority of them children (69).
Several of the jihadist mothers have since been tried and sentenced in Germany.
A German, left to join Syria at only 15 years old, is currently on trial for complicity in crimes against humanity after being repatriated with her two children.
Germany has several times been condemned by the courts to repatriate the wives and children of jihadists.
In the Roj camp, a row of tents in northeast Syria, tens of thousands of displaced people languish, guarded by Kurdish forces.
Some 200 French children are also detained there, 90% of whom are under the age of 12, according to psychiatrist Serge Hefez.