The head of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said Tuesday that hundreds of children of Islamic State fighters should be reunited with their families and repatriated from the caliphate’s last holdout to their countries of origin, Agence France-Presse reports.
The children are among some 73,000 people currently housed in the Al-Hol refugee camp after U.S.-backed forces cleared out the last ISIS stronghold in Syria last month. The United Nations estimates that 92% of those displaced into the camp are women and children.
There are “certainly hundreds, maybe more” children without their parents at the camp, according to Peter Maurer, president of the ICRC.
“Our priority is to proactively look to bring kids back to their country of origin where there are hopefully still family if they are unaccompanied,” Maurer said, according to AFP.
After the identities of children are verified, the ICRC said it will notify governments in the children’s country of origin and try to ..