The Global Affairs Department says six Canadian children have been repatriated from detention in northeastern Syria. Lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, shown in Ottawa on Friday, July 8, 2022, who has been assisting the family, received confirmation that the children had arrived safely in Montreal, where a specialized clinic is helping settle them. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Patrick Doyle

OTTAWA - Six Canadian children have been repatriated from detention in northeastern Syria, but the whereabouts of their mother remained unclear Tuesday.

Global Affairs Canada said in a statement the focus is now on protecting the children's privacy and ensuring they receive the support and care needed to begin a new life.

Lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, who has been assisting the family, received a message from Global Affairs early Tuesday saying the children arrived safely in Montreal, where a specialized clinic is helping settle them.

He recently said the children's mother, who is from Quebec, had been denied help by Ottawa to return to Canada on security grounds.

Greenspon said while the woman managed to leave al-Roj detention camp, there was no indication of where she went.

The Canadians were among the many foreign nationals being held in centres set up after the strife-torn region was reclaimed from the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The Global Affairs statement expressed thanks to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria for its co-operation "under extremely challenging security conditions."

"We also extend our gratitude to the United States for its assistance in the repatriation of Canadians and for its valuable support throughout this process."

Ottawa has previously arranged for the repatriation of other Canadian women and children from detention in Syria.

However, several Canadian children and their non-Canadian mothers continue to live in desperate conditions. A number of Canadian men are also detained.

A civil society delegation that visited Syrian prison camps last August called on Ottawa to provide immediate consular assistance to Canadian detainees and to swiftly repatriate all citizens wishing to return to Canada.

Delegation members, including Sen. Kim Pate and former Amnesty International Canada head Alex Neve, also urged the government to issue temporary permits to ensure that non-Canadian mothers and siblings of Canadian children can travel to Canada.

The delegation said Canada is complicit in an international human-rights failure through a policy of essentially warehousing thousands of foreign nationals, more than half of them children.

Neve said Tuesday while the six latest arrivals are now safe in Canada, it is disgraceful that the children have "effectively been forced apart from their mother."

"The government's assertion that her views are in some unspecified way too extreme to allow her to return home is deeply unsettling and not at all grounded in law or in keeping with human-rights standards," said Neve, now a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

He said the humanitarian delegation met with this family in Syria "and it was abundantly clear that they are all very close — the children with their mother, and with each other — and meaningfully rely on each other for support."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2024.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2024