Children related to suspected extremist fighters held in Syrian camps may remain stranded there for another 30 years, unless the pace of repatriations accelerates, Save the Children said Wednesday.
"It will take 30 years before foreign children stuck in unsafe camps in northeast Syria can return home if repatriations continue at the current rate," it said in a statement.
The charity's call to expedite repatriations coincides with the third anniversary of the final demise of the Daesh terrorist group's self-proclaimed caliphate.
The massive U.S.-backed operation landed tens of thousands of extremist proto-state residents in detention camps, including many foreigners. A proto-state is a political entity that does not represent a fully institutionalized or autonomous sovereign state.
Save The Children said that 18,000 Iraqi children and 7,300 minors from 60 other countries are stuck in the YPG-run al-Hol and Roj camps, in northeastern Syria.
The YPG is the PKK terrorist group's Syrian branch. The PKK is a designated terrorist organization in the U.S., Turkey and the European Union, and Washington's support for its Syrian affiliate has been a major strain on bilateral relations with Ankara.
The U.S. primarily partnered with the YPG in northeastern Syria in its fight against the Daesh terrorist group. On the other hand, Turkey strongly opposed the YPG's presence in northern Syria. Ankara has long objected to the U.S.' support for the YPG, a group that poses a threat to Turkey and that terrorizes local people, destroying their homes and forcing them to flee.
Under the pretext of fighting Daesh, the U.S. has provided military training and given truckloads of military support to the YPG, despite its NATO ally's security concerns. Underlining that one cannot support one terrorist group to defeat another, Turkey conducted its own counterterrorism operations, over the course of which it has managed to remove a significant number of terrorists from the region.
"The longer the children are left to fester in al-Hol and Roj, the more dangers they face," said the charity's Syria response director, Sonia Khush.
United Nations data shows that around 56,000 people live in al-Hol, an overcrowded camp plagued by murders and escape attempts.
In 2021, 74 children died there, including eight who were murdered, according to Save the Children.
Local authorities have repeatedly called on foreign states to repatriate their citizens but Western countries have mostly returned them in dribs and drabs, fearing a domestic political backlash.
"These children have done nothing wrong," Khush said. "When will leaders take responsibility and bring them home?"