Detention camps for those affiliated with the Islamic State in Syria hold more than 42,000 people of foreign nationalities – most of them children -, according to Human Rights Watch.
Canada decided to take back four women and ten children after they spent at least three years in detention camps for the so-called Islamic State in northeastern Syria.
The federal government agreed in January to return a group of women and children, but delayed returning four imprisoned men.
Canada said it had taken steps to bring the group back because of the deteriorating conditions in the camps. She shared scant details about the deportation process.
On Wednesday, lawyer for the deported families, Lawrence Grinspoon, said the women and children were on their way to Canada.
“I’ve spoken to many of their families here in Canada who are now very happy that their loved ones are on the way after three and a half years since the process of trying to bring them back began,” Grinspoon said.
No details are available on when or where this group will return to Canada.
It is not clear whether a Quebec woman and her six children are among the group to be deported, but lawyer Grinspoon told the BBC that his information indicates that this woman is not among those deported to Canada.
Canadian authorities have offered to take the children without their mother, whose deportation officials are still assessing the security risks, according to Grinspoon.
The lawyer said that International Affairs Canada told the mother last week that she had to choose between sending her children home unaccompanied and keeping them with her at the camp.
International Affairs Canada said in a statement Thursday that it “will continue deportation efforts as long as conditions permit.”
On Wednesday, reporters asked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau whether the authorities had violated government policy by asking mothers to send their children to Canada without them. Trudeau replied that Canada had “fulfilled all its responsibilities”.
“The situation in northeastern Syria is incredibly volatile, and Canada is watching the situation closely,” Trudeau said.
The Canadian prime minister declined to comment further.
This deportation would be the largest yet carried out by Canada after the destruction of the so-called Islamic State group in 2019.
Over the past four years, only a small number of women and children have been deported to Canada from these camps.
Detention camps for those linked to the Islamic State in Syria hold more than 42,000 people of foreign nationalities. These people, most of them children, live in dangerous conditions, according to the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch.