(VOA) Europe is repatriating increasing numbers of its Islamic State-linked women and children, who have languished for years in Syrian camps. The latest influx arrived in France this week, in a move welcomed by rights groups as positive but not enough.
The 51 women and children who landed in Paris Tuesday amount to the French government’s biggest intake of citizens linked to the Islamic State terror group to date. Their arrival underscores a sea change in France’s longstanding policy of case-by-case repatriations.
“This is a welcome and long overdue step, but it’s clearly not enough,” said Letta Tayler, a counterterrorism specialist for Human Rights Watch.
Like other rights groups, HRW has long advocated for countries to bring their citizens home from Iraq and Syria.
