The Federal Court of Canada on Friday ordered the country’s government to repatriate four Canadian citizens held in family camps run by the Islamic State jihadist organization in northeastern Syria, urging it to negotiate with their captors to decide to release them.
Judge Henry Brown has ordered Ottawa to request the repatriation of the four men «as soon as reasonably possible» and provide them with passports or emergency travel documents,» as reported by ‘The Globe and Mail’.
Specifically, a Canadian government representative is to travel to Syria to help facilitate the return of the four individuals once their release is negotiated with their captors.
The decision comes after relatives had asked the courts to order the executive to arrange the return of the four men being held, arguing that refusing to do so would violate the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Hours earlier, the Government of Canada has agreed to repatriate six Canadian women and 13 children held in subhuman conditions in the Islamic State jihadist organization’s family camps in northeastern Syria.
This repatriation pact is confidential and does not specify the date of return of the detainees beyond «a mutually agreed timetable» with the Kurdish forces running the Al Hol and Roj camps.
The latest report by the NGO Human Rights Watch, published last December, estimates that more than 40,000 foreigners, mostly children, remain in the camps under threat of Turkish artillery attacks, disease and violent attacks by Islamic extremists and Islamic State sleeper cells in these camps.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
