(AFP) Norway said Tuesday it was repatriating from Syria a woman linked to the Islamic State group and her two children, one of them reportedly seriously ill, citing humanitarian reasons.
Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide, confirming the operation to bring them home, told reporters: “We are doing that for humanitarian reasons because we fear the child is sick.”
The government had until now refused calls to bring back the five-year-old, who according to media reports may be suffering from cystic fibrosis, unless his mother let him travel alone.
But the right-wing administration relented, allowing the three to travel to Norway from the Kurd-controlled camp at Al-Hol, northeast Syria, where they have been detained since March 2019.
