An Albanian delegation repatriated four ISIS-affiliated women and their nine children on May 27, bringing their overall number of repatriations to 38 since 2020.
Thousands of foreign ISIS fighters and affiliated women and children remain in prisons and camps in North and East Syria, trapped in legal limbo, as many of their countries refuse to take them back, or seriously discuss proposals for an international tribunal that the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) has put forth.
There has been a relatively steady trickle of ISIS-affiliated detainees, mostly women and children, who were repatriated since the March 2019 liberation of Baghuz, Syria, which saw tens of thousands of new ISIS-affiliated detainees. Compared to the number of foreigners held by the AANES and SDF, the amount being repatriated is a small fraction. It is widely projected to take decades at the current rate to fully repatriate foreigners. As of May 31, only 97 ISIS-affiliated people have been repatriated from Syria in 2022. The number of persons repatriated throughout 2021 is 358.