MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. Foreign states are seeking Russia’s advice in how to bring back children kept in detention facilities of Iraq and Syria, Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Anna Kuznetsova told reporters on Tuesday.
On Monday night, a special Russian Emergencies Ministry plane landed in the Zhukovsky Airport near Moscow, bringing to Russia the last group of 32 children, discovered in prisons and orphanages of Baghdad. The children, aged between one and nine years, were either brought to Iraq by their Russian parents, who left the country to join the Islamic State terrorist group, or were born on the Iraqi territory. They will undergo comprehensive medical examination and will be returned to their relatives in Russia.
"This is a result of great effort. Today we receive requests for consultations from other states, because our children left, but about 500 children of foreign citizens still remain there, in prisons," Kuznetsova said.
She said several Russian governmental agencies, including the Foreign Ministry, the Emergency Situations Ministry and the Health Ministry, teamed up to settle the problem.
Some of the children will be taken to relatives in 13 Russian regions, including the North Caucasus republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya, Central Russian regions of Penza and Yaroslavl and the second largest city of St. Petersburg.
Kuznetsova said Russia’s effort to search for children of its citizens in Iraq would continue.
"If more children will be found - not in this particular prison, but in other places - the work will continue. The work proceeds in a very active manner after our talks with the prime minister of Iraq; they pledged their assistance in searching for the children," she said.
The ombudsperson added that six of the children who returned to Russia today are orphans.
"Relatives are now waiting for the children. Custody documents will be prepared in the near future, and, if their health permits, the children will return to their homes. So far, since the effort began, none of the children whom we brought back has ended up in an orphanage," she said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement it would continue its search for Russian children on the territory of Iraq in cooperation with Iraqi partners.
"The Russian Foreign Ministry and Russia’s Embassy in Baghdad, in contact with Iraqi partners, will continue searching and identifying underage Russian citizens who might still be on the territory of Iraq," the ministry said in a statement.
It thanked the Iraqi government "for every possible aid and support in organizing and carrying out this humanitarian mission of utmost importance."
A special commission was set up in 2017 by the office of the Russian children’s rights ombudsperson to help evacuate Russian children from areas of combat operations. Thanks to an algorithm of actions elaborated jointly with the foreign, emergencies, interior and health ministries, as many as 122 children were repatriated from Iraq in four operations, in December 2018, February, June and November 2019.
Effort in Syria
The Russian authorities are also preparing necessary documents to return 49 Russian children from refugee camps and prisons of Syria, Kuznetsova told reporters.
"We have a list of 146 children, 49 of them have already undergone DNA tests, and documents are being prepared for them, although we have no illusions that this work will proceed as smoothly as with Iraq," she said.
According to the ombudsperson, Russian specialists currently have access only to orphans on the territory of the Al Hawl refugee camp, and those tasked with this effort face "very serious risks."
"Thanks to our Defense Ministry. Its servicemen accompanied us everywhere and rendered all possible assistance. This is very encouraging. We hope that documents for those kids will be prepared in the near future. Some of them are being kept in the prison of Damascus," she said.
She said that the youngest of those children is aged only a few months, the oldest - 17 years.
"The problem is that their names and surnames were not spelled correctly. Some even have none. Therefore, we not only identify them with the help of DNA, we are also checking the lists," she said. "The work in Syria has just begun and I hope that it will be completed in the same manner as the work with Iraq. At the same time, I understand that those children, regretfully, are being kept in far worse conditions than those brought to Russia today," Kuznetsova said.
Russian children in Iraq and Syria
The problem of Russian children in Iraq and Syria emerged after certain Russian citizens left the country to join the Islamic State terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) in Iraq and Syria. They concluded marriages and fathered children, or brought their wives and children with them. Many of those children were orphaned as a result of hostilities. In 2017, terrorists started sending them to militant training camps for indoctrination and combat training, expecting that one day they would join their ranks.
The active work to return those children to Russia from conflict zones is under way upon instructions from Russian President Vladimir Putin.