The Dutch government does not need to bring back the mentally disabled Dutch-Moroccan Syrian traveler Chadia B. from the Syrian refugee camp Al-Hol. The court in The Hague determined this on Wednesday in summary proceedings that B.’s lawyer had filed against the state. The government does not have to make any promises from the preliminary relief judge whether it will still bring B. back to the Netherlands in the future.
Chadia B. traveled to Syria twice in 2013, where she joined Islamic State (IS) and married a jihadist. She left B. because of her psychological problems. In 2018 she ended up in the Syrian refugee camp Al-Hol.
In October 2020, the judge in The Hague decided in summary proceedings brought by B. against the state that the Netherlands did not have to repatriate the woman. At the time, the court called her situation “very serious and extremely distressing”. However, it weighed more heavily that the Netherlands was unable to conduct the necessary consultations with unrecognized groups and entities in Northern Syria because of possible ‘damage to international relations’, according to the judge.
However, a year ago it was decided that the Netherlands still had to make an effort to get the woman back if the situation in Syria would improve. The court in The Hague will therefore not agree to this on Wednesday.
Mental state
B. was also part of a group with 56 children and 23 women in Syria who previously demanded repatriation from the Dutch state in a lawsuit. Although they were initially right, the Supreme Court ruled in June 2020 that the Netherlands is not obliged to bring the group back. B. later filed her own summary proceedings, because she felt that her psychological condition was not taken into account in the earlier proceedings when she left for Syria.
The state lawyer said earlier that B. would not be “at the top of the list” to be brought back to the Netherlands. He said repatriation missions are “complex”. “Such missions are preceded by months of negotiations. A complicated process. It’s not like you get there and take someone with you.”
Podcast: Chadia B. traveled not once, but twice to Syria
NRC editor Thomas Rueb spoke to Chadia B.’s mother, who repeatedly called in authorities to stop her daughter. How could B. still leave for Syria, not once, but twice?
Presentation: Lamyae Aharouay
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