A Tunisian grandmother is struggling to rescue her young grandchildren from a refugee camp in Syria.
By Sudarsan Raghavan Sudarsan Raghavan Cairo bureau chief covering North Africa and Yemen Email Bio Follow May 11 at 6:00 AM
Tunisian officials say they are hampered in bringing home the detainees by a weak diplomatic presence in Syria and Libya and are overwhelmed by the logistics of repatriation amid the ongoing unrest there. But with Tunisia grappling with its own social turmoil and militant groups on its own soil, there is little political will to bring families back, according to relatives, officials, activists and counterterrorism experts.
In the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, at least 5,000 Tunisians traveled to Syria, Iraq and Libya to fight, more than any other nationality from outside those countries, according to the United Nations. Tunisian authorities claim the figure is lower, around 3,000, though still the highest number of foreign fighters per capita in the world. Many ended up joining the Islamic State and started families.
Sboui sent letters to various officials to try to get her grandchildren back from Syria. Many countries share the same concerns as Tunisia about repatriating the children of citizens who fought for the Islamic State. To date, more than 30 countries have balked at doing so. Sghaier has suggested using DNA and fingerprint tests to identify Tunisian children who are being held.
Sboui’s son listened too well. At 28, he left this placid North African town for Syria in 2012 to join Islamist groups fighting against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. By 2014, he had joined the Islamic State and married a Syrian woman. They had two boys and girl. A year later, he married a second wife, a Tunisian. They had a girl and then a boy.
Then, in June, Islamic State fighters assassinated him and his second wife, who by then was pregnant again, Mohammed said.
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