The second group of Tajik nationals numbering 104 women and children has been repatriated from Syria, according to the Tajik MFA information department.
A special charter flight with 105 Tajik nationals onboard landed at Dushanbe International Airport yesterday.
At the airport, they were reportedly met by Deputy Prime Minister Matlubakhon Sattoriyon, Presidential Adviser Social Development and Public Relations Emomali Nasriddinzoda, Minister of Education and Science of Rahim Saidzoda, Commissioner for Human Rights Umed Bobozoda and some others officials.
At the request of the Kazakh side, five citizens of Kazakhstan (a woman with four children) were also carried from Syria to Tajikistan by this flight.
Tajik authorities have said that about 2,000 citizens of the Central Asian nation joined the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in 2013-2015. Hundreds of them were killed in the clashes in the Middle East. Some of those who returned to Tajikistan were either sentenced to lengthy prison terms or received amnesty.
Recall, Tajik authorities in 2015 offered an amnesty to those who voluntarily returned and renounced violence, seeing it as an opportunity to warn citizens of the dangers of joining ranks with radical Islam.
Tajik authorities intend to bring back home all the Tajik women and children stranded in Syrian refugee camps.
According to some sources, Syrian refugee camps in 2019 housed at least 575 Tajik women and children whose families had joined the Islamic State (IS) terror group. More than 300 Tajik nationals have been repatriated from Syria to date after the amnesty was offered in 2015.
