Switzerland urged to repatriate two girls from Syria camp - U.N. experts

United Nations human rights experts urged Switzerland on Thursday to repatriate two Geneva sisters from a squalid camp in north-eastern Syria five years after the girls were allegedly abducted by their mother who joined Islamic State (IS). More than 60,000 people, two-thirds of them children, are held in camps for families associated with IS fighters, which the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross described after a visit in March as a "tragedy in plain sight".

The al-Hol and al-Roj camps, run by Syrian Kurdish forces, hold nationals from some 60 countries who fled IS's final enclaves. "The two fathers of the girls, who both live in Geneva, have asked the Swiss government to take the necessary steps to repatriate their daughters, who were ostensibly taken by their mother on a vacation in August 2016 but ended up in Syria," the U.N. experts said in a statement.

"The repatriation of these two children should not be further delayed," they said, adding that the half-sisters were believed to be held at al-Roj. The 14-year-old has anaemia and is believed to have suffered a severe shrapnel wound to her leg, requiring three operations, while the eight-year-old was thought to be in poor health. The Swiss foreign ministry, in a statement to Reuters, reaffirmed its 2019 policy on "travellers motivated by terrorism".

"Repatriation can only be considered for minors," it said, adding that it was seeking solutions with authorities in Switzerland and abroad. "However, these efforts have not yet been successful, as the mothers refuse to let the children be repatriated without them...the Kurdish authorities do not authorise the separation of mother and children, unless the mother agrees or for humanitarian reasons." The fathers, through their lawyers, have written to Swiss parliamentarians seeking support for the girls' repatriation.

The lawyer's March 21 letter, seen by Reuters, refers to decisions by Swiss officials to strip the mother of her Swiss nationality, while also opening a criminal procedure against her for kidnapping and belonging to a criminal organisation.