A Tajik government source says Syrian refugee camps currently house at least 575 Tajik women and children whose families had joined the Islamic State (IS) terror group.
A source within the Tajik government, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service on September 12 that most of the Tajiks are in the Al-Hol refugee camp, located in northeastern Syria.
“About 90 of them are women, more than 200 girls, and more than 240 boys,” the source said, adding that some children are as young as 1 year old and most are orphans.
The majority of them arrived at the camp earlier in 2019 after being freed by IS fighters in Baghuz, the extremist group's last stronghold, which fell to Kurdish-led forces in March.
"This is not a final statistic, in reality the number of Tajik citizens could be much higher," the Tajik government source said.
Authorities in Tajikistan have estimated that about 2,000 of its citizens left the country after 2014 to join IS. Official numbers previously placed the number of Tajik women and children living under IS control at about 400.
The Tajik government, which tightly controls religious activities in the predominantly Muslim country, offered an amnesty in 2015 to IS fighters and their families who returned.
Many who took Dushanbe up on its offer were showcased as participants in the government's anti-extremism campaign.
As IS fighters in Syria suffered major battlefield defeats in 2019, Tajikistan has said it does not intend to leave any Tajik children behind in Iraq and Syria, fearing they might pose a long-term security threat.
The government has since been engaged in an active effort to secure the repatriation of Tajik women and children, including more than 80 children who were repatriated from Iraq.
