Dutch government takes back 5 women linked to ISIS

The Dutch government has taken back five women who are said to have joined the Islamic State years ago. The women landed in the Netherlands on Saturday along with a total of 11 children and were arrested on arrival. They are to be brought before an investigating judge in Rotterdam tomorrow, Monday, said Brechtje van de Moosdijk, spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office. The women are accused of terrorist crimes, among other things. The children were placed in the care of the youth welfare office, van de Moosdijk said.

The ISIS women and their children were most recently living in the Roj reception and internment camp near Dêrik in the north-east Syrian autonomous region. Their repatriation was ordered by the Dutch Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius. The background was warnings from a Rotterdam court about the impending statute of limitations on alleged crimes in the case of the five ISIS supporters, which would come into effect in April. “By repatriating the suspects, the Dutch government wanted to prevent them from going unpunished,” said Yesilgöz-Zegerius.

At the height of the Syrian civil war, around 300 Dutch nationals left the country to join the Islamic State, according to the government in The Hague. About 120 are said to be alive, many in camps and detention centers in north-eastern Syria and Iraq. For a long time, the previous government blocked the return of citizens who had left to join ISIS. Few Dutch nationals have been repatriated since the Caliphate was crushed.

In June last year, the Netherlands brought back Ilham B. from Gouda and her three children. The government had been ordered by a court to carry out the repatriation. Minister Yesilgöz-Zegerius announced that efforts to repatriate more nationals in north-east Syria would continue.