Dozens of children were returned to Kyrgyzstan from Iraq Tuesday in the ex-Soviet country's first major repatriation since hundreds of its citizens joined extremist groups fighting there and in Syria, the foreign ministry said.

Images showed the children holding balloons and stuffed animals after touching down at the capital Bishkek's Manas airport early Tuesday.

Scores of women from Central Asia are serving jail time in Iraq over their participation in the activities of jihadist organisations, chiefly the Islamic State group. In many cases, their husbands are assumed to have died in the fighting.

Kyrgyzstan's foreign ministry said in a statement that the repatriation of 79 children born to Kyrgyz parents was "carried out with the consent of their mothers, who remain in the Republic of Iraq."

The statement did not mention the status of the women.

It added that government services will work on the children's "rehabilitation and resocialisation for further transfer to relatives".

Kyrgyzstan is the fourth state in former Soviet Central Asia to complete a repatriation mission from either Iraq or Syria following neighbours Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

The Kyrgyz government thanked Iraq's government, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

A fifth Central Asian state, Turkmenistan, has not acknowledged its citizens joining the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

Related Links
News From Across The Stans

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Chinese pressure upends Uighur refuge in Turkey
Istanbul (AFP) March 11, 2021
After 20 years in a Chinese prison, Abdullah Abdulrahman joined 50,000 other Uighurs and fled to Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had once railed against "genocide" in Xinjiang. But Turkey is increasingly dependent on Chinese investments and coronavirus vaccines, and the 46-year-old fears being sent back to a region where China has detained at least one million people in "political education" camps. Abdulrahman's anxiety is aggravated by the Chinese parliament's recent ratification o ... read more