Global Courant 2023-05-04 20:39:31
A lawyer representing five Canadians detained in a detention camp in northeastern Syria says he has been assured the federal government will repatriate them, but does not know when that will happen.
The two Canadian women and three teenage girls were said to be boarding a repatriation flight with 14 other Canadians last month. But they never made it.
The five Canadians were missing for more than 10 days and later reported being held and mistreated by their Kurdish guards instead of being transported to the pick-up point at al-Roj camp, according to their lawyers.
Ottawa lawyer Lawrence Greenspon says Global Affairs Canada has now informed him that it has “obtained assurances that the Kurdish authorities will facilitate” the transfer of the five people to be brought to Canada. But the government did not say when that might happen.
“While no timetable has been specified, it gives families hope for the return of their loved ones,” Greenspon told CBC News in an email.
The two Canadian women and three girls were part of a federal lawsuit. Greenspon had argued that by allowing them to languish in camps described by human rights groups as having inhumane conditions, Canada had violated their rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The camps in northeastern Syria are holding ISIS suspects and their relatives, according to Human Rights Watch.
The last-minute agreement between Greenspon and the government in January was struck a day before a Federal Court judge released his decision on whether the government should repatriate all detained Canadians in northeastern Syria, including men held in prisons there .
The deal removed the women and children from the Federal Court ruling, leaving only men on the case.
A federal court judge ruled in January that four men held in Kurdish prisons had the right to have the federal government formally request their release “as soon as reasonably possible”. The federal government appealed that decision and is awaiting a ruling.
Greenspon said this latest update from the government shows its “continued efforts in line with the agreement” to repatriate the women and children who were part of the deal with the government.
These five Canadians have not been charged with any crimes in northeastern Syria.
The RCMP arrested three Canadian women in Montreal after the government repatriated them in early April. The RCMP seeks terrorism peace ties against the women.
