“The hands of our children do not hold weapons,” wrote a woman from the northern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), who lives with her three children in Camp Roj in Syria.
She sent the letter to her sister on December 11th, asking her to “make it public” in order to once again appeal to the authorities in BiH to speed up the repatriation process and “save the children of a difficult life” living in captivity in a camp controlled by the Kurdish administration and the Syrian Democratic Forces.
This Bosnian woman is one of 30 women in the two camps Al-Hol and Roj, where, in addition to internally displaced Syrian refugees, families of suspected militants of the so-called Islamic state, are housed in separate parts. 66 children are with them.
This is the second time that a woman from Camp Roj has addressed the BiH authorities. She did this for the first time in a letter she sent in February 2019, with two other women from BiH who were with her in Roj.
Calling on the authorities to help the children and bring them there “where they would have a childhood”, she also states that some of the children have never seen a house, they don’t know what it looks like, that all they know are “tents that say flammable and life-threatening”, thinking on labels for gas and kerosene bottles that women use in camps for preparing food and heating.
Minister of Security: No one will return until they pass the checks of our services
“No one will return from Syria to BiH until they pass the checks of our security services,” said Security Minister Nenad Nesic on October 12th.
In response to journalist’s statement that they have already passed security checks, considering that for a year and a half a group has been operating at the Council of Ministers of BiH that deals with these issues and was appointed by this ministry, that a return plan has also been drawn up, but also the fact that persons in Syria has been captured for almost five years, the minister says that he “has the discretion to ask for additional checks”.
Earlier in May 2023, he expressed similar views on the fact that children from Syria can be a threat to BiH, although the Ministry of Security of BiH has repeatedly stated that it has met all the necessary conditions related to creating a legal and institutional framework for the return of persons from Syria.
BiH organized the return of 25 citizens from Syria in December 2019, with the help of the United States (U.S.). Their rehabilitation and resocialization was carried out with the coordination of several institutions in BiH.
The women were not criminally prosecuted and their resocialization was based on work with social workers and psychologists. After the changes in the law, the children were also registered in the registers of BiH, considering that some were born in the territory of Syria, RSE writes.
E.Dz.
Photo ©️ RSE
