Virtual innocence. On the status of the children of European departees in northeast Syria

ABSTRACT

About 700 European children are stranded with their mothers in the detention camps in northeast Syria. They are children of European departees who travelled to the Levant after 2012 to join one of the fighting forces against the Syrian regime. Most European countries refuse to repatriate these children because of their parents, who are considered terrorists. This paper investigates the status of these children through the analysis of the political and media-debates and ongoing collaborative ethnographic research in Belgium. We argue that these children reside in a condition of virtual innocence, which is characterized by a continuous interrogation of their social, political, and ontological status as well as their right to life. This condition of virtual innocence also sheds a different light on the state of exception: rather than being expressed through a permanent ban, it becomes manifested through an undecided and pending inclusion into the bios.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• innocence
• State of exception
• Muslims
• Foreign Fighters
• citizenship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 “Twee Belgische IS-vrouwen en Child Focus dagen Belgische staat voor rechter” in De Morgen, 29/05/18.

2 Nederlandstalige Rechtbank van Eerste Aanleg Brussel (KG), 19 december 2018; 2018/72/C.

3 Gorevan, D. & Achilles, K. (2021) “When am I going to start to live. The urgent need to repatriate children trapped in Al Hawl and Al Roj Camps”, Report by Save the Children, September 2021.

4 We use the term ‘departees’ and ‘returnees’ rather than foreign fighters following the work of Ragazzi and Walmsley (2018), since the former terms more accurately represent the heterogeneity of profiles (including women and children, as well as men who did not fight).

5 We have made use of the search instrument Mediargus which covers all the Belgian press and gathered 62 items in De Standaard, De Morgen, Knack on the Flemish side and Le Soir, La Libre Belgique and Le Vif on the Francophone side from 2017 to 2020, using keywords such as ‘children’ (kinderen/enfants), Syria, and foreign fighters (syriëstrijders/djihadistes) to identify relevant articles.

6 One of the co-founders of the collective, VUB Professor Gerrit Loots, travelled twice to the camps Al-Hawl and Al-Roj in North-East Syria, with a team of medical doctors and psychologists, to assess the physical and mental health of the children and their mothers.

7 Merckx, V. (18/03/2018) “Rudi Vranckx sprak als eerste tv-journalist met Belgische IS-vrouwen in Syrische gevangenenkamp. “We hebben spijt”” in VRT news.

8 This news documentary was a preview of a longer three-episode documentary Voor de zonden van de Vaders (For the Sins of the Fathers) that was broadcasted in the fall of that year on the VRT.

9 See “Child Focus appelle à récupérer les enfants belges qui se trouvent en Syrie” in Le Soir, 03/05/2018 (belga), and the Open letters published by the Flemish and Francophone Children’s Rights in respectively June 2019 and October 2019.

10 Link to the website: https://youthatsocialrisk.be/projects/syria/

11 In May 2019, a call, initiated by the authors of this piece, was signed by 300 Belgian academics and actors of the civil society and published in the Flemish and Francophone dailies De Morgen and Le Soir (link De Morgen and “Il est urgent de rapatrier les enfants Belges de Syrie”, 10 May 2019). In October 2020 an international call signed by 200 International academics was published in The Middle East Eye (“European families stranded in north-eastern Syria must be repatriated”, 26 October 2020).

12 See in this respect the similar positions defended by the Dutch and Flemish agencies for the Rights of Children, “Nederlandse kinderen in kampen in Syrië: De overheid moet zijn verantwoordelijkheid nemen deze kinderen te beschermen, de Kinderombudsman” (Position Paper de Kinderombudsman, 19 April 2018) and “Belgische kinderen uit terroristische conflictzones moeten kunnen rekenen op onze hulp” (Standpunt Kinderrechten Commissariaat, 13 April 2018).

13 Bernard De Vos (Francophone Comissioner for het Children’s Rights) during the parlementary hearing on November 6th 2019 in “Commissie voor buitenlandse betrekkingen over de Veiligheidssituatie in de kampen in Noors-Syrië en het lot van de Belgische Foreign Terrorist Fighters, gelet op het Turkse militaire offensief”, Doc.55 0926/001 p.6 – Our translation.

14 Jessica Soors (Groen, Flemish Green party) and Goedele Liekens (Open-VLD, Flemish liberal party) during the parlementary hearing of November 6th 2019, “Commissie voor buitenlandse betrekkingen over de Veiligheidssituatie in de kampen in Noors-Syrië en het lot van de Belgische Foreign Terrorist Fighters, gelet op het Turkse militaire offensief”. Doc.55 0926/001 p.21 – Our translation.

15 Michel De Maegd (MR) during the parlementary hearing of November 6th 2019, “Commissie voor buitenlandse betrekkingen over de Veiligheidssituatie in de kampen in Noors-Syrië en het lot van de Belgische Foreign Terrorist Fighters, gelet op het Turkse militaire offensief”. Doc.55 0926/001 p.23-24 – Our translation.

16 “Groeien de kinderen van IS-strijders niet beter in Islamitische landen op in a national Belgian newspaper” in De Standaard, 19/06/19 and Bosschaerts, I. (2019) “Jihadexpert over IS-weduwen en hun kinderen: “Haat is hen met de paplepel ingegeven” in De Morgen, 28/12/18.

17 BELGA (2019, June 13) “Repatriëring IS-Kinderen: Theo Francken betwijfelt of het om weeskinderen gaat” in Knack.

18 Anonymous (2020, April 22) “Een verscheurende en onmogelijke keuze” (A devastating and impossible choice). Published on the website of Youth at Social Risk. (our translation) https://youthatsocialrisk.be/2020/04/22/een-verscheurende-en-onmogelijke-keuze/

19 BELGA (2019, June 13) “Repatriëring IS-Kinderen: Theo Francken betwijfelt of het om weeskinderen gaat” in Knack.

20 Daria Safai (N-VA) during the parlementary hearing of November 6th 2019, “Commissie voor buitenlandse betrekkingen over de Veiligheidssituatie in de kampen in Noors-Syrië en het lot van de Belgische Foreign Terrorist Fighters, gelet op het Turkse militaire offensief”. Doc.55 0926/001, p.21 – Our translation.

21 Doc.55 0926/001, p.25 – Our translation.

22 Hof van Beroep Brussel (KG), 21 oktober 2020, 2020/KR/2, 2020/KR/16.

23 11 December 2019, Nederlandstalige Rechtbank van Eerste Aanleg Brussel, Beschikking, 10^e Kamer, Kortgeding, 2019/90/C.

24 Ibid, pp. 21.

25 25 February 2020, Nederlandstalige Rechtbank van Eerste Aanleg Brussel, Beschikking, 10^e Kamer, 2020/13/C, pp. 19.

26 The reports by the VUB team of their fieldtrip to the camps offer, on the other hand, a contrasting and very humanizing depiction of the mothers as extremely caring, loving and responsible with their children.

27 Of the estimated 163 Belgian children in the region, 135 (83%) were born in Syria. Source: OCAD, Update Contextnota. Belgische minderjarigen bij de Islamitische Staat, Doc 402520, Departement Analyse, 02/03/2020.

28 11 December 2019, Nederlandstalige Rechtbank van Eerste Aanleg Brussel, Beschikking, 10^e Kamer, Kortgeding, 2019/90/C, p. 23.

29 21 October 2020, Hof van Beroep Brussel, Arrest, – 2020/KR/2 2020/KR/16, pp. 27.

30 Eeckhaut, M. “IS vrouwen en hun kinderen terug uit Syrië” in De Standaard, 17/07/21, URL: https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20210716_97928382

31 Peltier, E. & Méheut, C. “Europe’s Dilemma: Take in ISIS families or leave them in Syria?” in The New York Times, 28/05/2021.