(Deutsche Welle) Germany’s Higher Administration Court (OVG) in Berlin-Brandenburg on Thursday ruled that three children and their mother must be brought back from northern Syria.
While the German Foreign Ministry was prepared to repatriate the children, it refused to bring back the mother citing — like many other European countries — risks to national security.
The mother entered an “Islamic State” (IS)-controlled part of Syria in 2014 with the two elder children. The third was born there before IS was vanquished.
In its ruling Thursday, the OVG said the children — now aged 8, 7 and 2 — would still need their mother after being repatriated from the Kurdish force-run al-Hol camp, and that they were traumatized.