Denmark repatriates mother, child of dead ISIS fighter from Syria

Denmark said Friday it had repatriated a mother and her eight-year-old son, the child of a dead ISIS fighter, from a Syrian detention camp.

They arrived in Denmark on Thursday following an agreement with local Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria, the Danish foreign ministry said.

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The mother had agreed to the repatriation and was arrested upon arrival for suspected terrorism, it said. The child was handed over to social services.

Copenhagen had in 2021 offered to repatriate all the Danish children in the Roj and Al-Hol camps in northeastern Syria and also offered to bring home three mothers who had Danish citizenship.

The now eight-year-old boy was among those offered repatriation from Roj, but not the mother because her Danish citizenship had been revoked in 2020.

She had therefore refused to let her son go without her.

Denmark’s Supreme Court ruled in August 2024 that Copenhagen had an obligation to repatriate both the mother and child.

The woman was born in Denmark in 1998 as a Somali citizen and acquired Danish citizenship in 2001.

She subsequently moved to Britain at the age of four and has not lived in Denmark since.

In 2014, at the age of 16, she travelled to Syria where she joined ISIS.

Danish intelligence service PET concluded she had received weapons and fighting training in Syria, which was why her citizenship was revoked.

The Scandinavian country has previously repatriated 18 children and four women from the camps.

There is still one Danish woman and her two children living in the Roj camp.

She has yet to accept Denmark’s repatriation offer because she doesn’t want to be separated from her children on arrival in Denmark.

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