Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, announced that a group of 26 Russian children has returned to Russia from one of the camps in northeastern Syria.

According to the Russian news agency “TASS,” on Friday, November 22, the commissioner stated that a group of Russian children had returned home from one of the camps in northeastern Syria.

The group includes 14 boys and 12 girls, aged between 5 and 12 years, who will meet their families in Russia. The commissioner explained that the children underwent medical examinations before leaving Syria.

She also indicated that doctors visited one of the refugee camps and took blood samples from the children for DNA tests to confirm familial relationships, stating that they will undergo another medical examination at a federal clinic in Moscow before meeting their relatives.

Since 2018, 592 Russian children have returned from Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, and Turkey to Russia, with the humanitarian mission to repatriate Russian children from the Middle East being coordinated by the President’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights.

Many countries continue to repatriate their citizens from the al-Hol and al-Roj camps in northeastern Syria, focusing on returning children. France, for instance, repatriated 364 children from families suspected of belonging to the Islamic State group last September.

27,000 people

The United States previously revealed that around 27,000 people are in the al-Hol and al-Roj camps, which house families of Islamic State fighters, originating from more than 60 countries.

On July 19, the US State Department stated that most camp residents are children under 12, noting that they “deserve a chance at life outside the harsh conditions of the camps.”

The camps run by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in eastern al-Hasakah included around 50,000 individuals at their inception, primarily women and children, along with more than 10,000 foreigners from about 60 other countries.

In March, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria reported that 364 children are benefiting from the coordination efforts of its office to ensure optimal care for them, indicating that the parents of these children are “suspected members of the Islamic State group.”