Norway repatriates two sisters from Syria and their children

Norway announced on Tuesday the repatriation of two sisters who left in their teens in Syria and their three children, a decision motivated by the "

" living conditions in the camp where they were detained.

“

,” Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said in a statement.

Of Somali origin, the two sisters left Norway illegally at the end of 2013, at the age of 16 and 19, to take part in the fight against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, as they later explained in a email.

Their story was told in a book by Norwegian author Åsne Seierstad.

Now aged 29 and 25, they respectively had two and one daughters born of unions with fighters from the Islamic State group, according to the newspaper Verdens Gang (VG).

All five are being repatriated from the Kurdish-administered Al-Roj jihadist prison camp in northeastern Syria.

Repatriations that are debating

"

", specifies the ministry.

Despite appeals from part of the opposition and NGOs, the Norwegian authorities say they have not been able to extract the children so far for lack of an agreement to do so from their mothers.

As in other European countries, the issue is under debate in Norway.

Both the United States and the local Kurdish authorities or the UN advocate this kind of repatriation, in particular because of the instability in the region, the ministry stressed.

In 2020, the Scandinavian country had already repatriated from Syria a woman linked to IS, on the grounds that one of her children was seriously ill.