Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service says Syria's semiautonomous Kurdish administration has repatriated 146 Tajik women and children who were held in Syria because a relative fought in the ranks of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.
The group of 104 children and 42 women reportedly arrived in Dushanbe, late on July 25.
The transfer process was coordinated by the Syrian Foreign Ministry, the International Red Cross, and the diplomatic representatives of Tajikistan in Kuwait.
According to Radio Liberty, Fanar al-Kaeet, a Kurdish foreign-affairs official, said it was the first repatriation to Tajikistan. He said the coronavirus pandemic was among the reasons for the delay in the repatriation operation.
It is to be noted that the Tajik government has said it is determined to bring back home all Tajik women and children who are being held at prisons and refugee camps in Syria and Iraq.
As part of a larger program since 2019, Tajikistan has repatriated 84 children from Iraq, where their Tajik mothers were jailed for being members of the extremist group. But that effort was suspended in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic led to border closures and halted international travel.
Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin told reporters in Dushanbe on July 27, 2020 that some 500 Tajik nationals are currently living in camps in Syrian territories controlled by Kurds.
“There are 286 women and children among them who want to return home. “We are closely cooperating with the Syrian authorities in this direction,” Muhriddin said.
According to him, they are also closely cooperating with UNICEF and International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) in this direction.
