Thursday, December 16, 2021, an official Russian delegation headed by Mrs. Maria Lvova Belova, Commissioner of the Russian President for Child Rights, arrived at the headquarters of the Department of Foreign Relations in Qamishlo, to return eight Russian orphaned children from the families of the terrorist organization ISIS.

The delegation was received by the co-chair of the Department of Foreign Relations, Abdul Karim Omar, the deputies of co-chairing Fanar Al-Kait, Abeer Elia, and Lana Hussein, the spokeswoman of the YPJ Relations Office.

Dr. Abdul Karim Omar, during the press conference held between the two sides, clarified the most prominent files and issues that were discussed related to the rights of the child and said, “ we explained the situation in general and talked about the catastrophic repercussions of the war on children, which caused the deprivation of millions of education at the level of Syria, in addition to the situation of children in the camps of the people displaced from Turkish occupied by region and the effect of closing the Tel Kojer (Al Yaroubiya) crossing and depriving our region of relief aid on the health and educational levels.

Omar noted the failure of the international community and its failure to assume its responsibilities towards the children in the Al-Hol and Roj camps, explaining that the Autonomous Administration called on all countries to assume the responsibility of their citizens, whether in the camps or detention to repatriate them, and the importance of supporting the administration to improve the situation of the camps and detention centers in terms of security and humanitarian aspects.

Omar also stressed the need to build rehabilitation centers for hundreds of children in detention and camps, as they need to build 15 centers such as Hori Center, but this needs support from the international community.

 

For her part, Maria Lvova Belova, Commissioner for the Rights of the Russian President for Children, said, “It was very important for me to visit the region and meet with officials here to work jointly to return the children. I would like to thank the Autonomous Administration for facilitating the process of repatriating the children. She added that we know that the families of these children have caused harm to the people here, but we believe that children are innocent and hope that we can continue in this humanitarian mission.”

The handover took place after the signing of an official handover document between the two sides.