The United States repatriated 11 citizens from northeast Syria on Tuesday, May 7, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced.
Mr. Blinken said that among those 11 repatriated U.S. citizens were five minors. The operation also saw U.S. officials resettle within the United States the nine-year-old non-U.S. citizen sibling of one of the U.S. citizen minors repatriated on Tuesday.
Mr. Blinken said Tuesday’s effort marks the largest single repatriation of U.S. citizens from northeast Syria to date.
In addition to returning U.S. citizens to the United States, the State Department also facilitated the repatriation of six Canadian citizens, four Dutch citizens, and one Finnish citizen. Among that group of foreign nationals were another eight minors.
“In conducting this complex repatriation and resettlement the Department coordinated closely with our interagency partners,” Mr. Blinken said. “I would like to thank the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, and the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Health and Human Services for their assistance.”
Mr. Blinken said U.S. officials also received help in the repatriation effort from the Government of Kuwait and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Mr. Blinken did not provide additional details as to why these U.S. citizens needed to be repatriated from Syria, but noted approximately 30,000 individuals from more than 60 countries remain at the Roj and al-Hol displaced persons camps within Syria.
US General Warned Syrian Camps are ISIS Recruiting Ground
The Roj and al-Hol camps were established to take in people displaced during the fighting in Iraq and Syria against the ISIS terrorist group.
Thousands of foreigners, including women and children, had also moved to Syria and Iraq from countries around the world to join ISIS and live in the areas the internationally designated terrorist group attempted to control. The “caliphate” it was trying to create collapsed after a U.S.-led coalition effort known as Operation Inherent Resolve was formed to fight the terrorist group.
Reports have indicated numerous ISIS sympathizers, and their families, are among those residing in the camps in the Roj and al-Hol camps. Shamima Begum, a British-born woman who moved to Syria at the age of 15 to marry a Dutch national fighting for ISIS, is one such individual who has been staying at the Roj camp as she has appealed for the right to return to the United Kingdom following the ISIS territorial collapse.
Several U.S. and international officials have raised concerns about the ISIS presence within these camps. After visiting al-Hol in September 2022, U.S. Army Gen. Michael “Eric” Kurilla, the commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said he’d observed ISIS sympathizers abusing other camp residents and attempting “to spread their vile ideology.”
Gen. Kurilla said most of the camp residents are trying to flee ISIS, but said ISIS sympathizers see the camp as a captive audience for their recruitment efforts. The CENTCOM commander called for an “urgent” effort to repatriate foreign nationals being held at the camp.
“As governments undertake repatriation of their nationals, we urge thoughtfulness and flexibility to ensure that to the maximum extent possible family units remain intact,” Mr. Blinken said on Tuesday as he announced the repatriation of the U.S. citizens. “The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis in the displaced person’s camps and detention facilities in northeast Syria is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing.”
NTD News reached out to the State Department for more details about the repatriation, including whether any of the individuals who were repatriated had ties with ISIS members. The State Department did not respond by press time on Tuesday.
At a department press briefing on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said around 25 U.S. citizens may remain at displaced persons camps and detention facilities in northeast Syria.
Reuters contributed to this article.