Government still working for children in the al-Hol camp

The resettlement project of Finnish children in the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria has been suspended due to the coronavirus (koronavirus, in Finnish). But only temporarily.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto gave an interview to Yle Radio 1 and said, “Finland is still working to repatriate the children from the camp and will closely monitor the conditions of the camp.”

According to Haavisto, the repatriation of children negotiations has also been slowed down by the plans of the informal Kurdish administration to convict the women of the camp of crimes on the spot.

Haavisto said, “We have been a little cautious about this because we are not sure under which law the trials would take place. We are still trying to repatriate Finnish children from the camp but the Kurdish administration will go through this trial process first.”

The Al-Hol camp has about 30 Finnish children and a dozen women. Two orphans were evacuated from the camp to Finland in December 2019. The government's clear intention is to repatriate the children as soon as possible.