Tunis, Feb 12, 2019 – Officials in Tunisia have been “dragging their feet” on efforts to repatriate Tunisian children of Islamic State group members from camps in Syria, Iraq and Libya, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. The rights group, quoting Tunisia’s ministry of women and children, said about 200 children and 100 women claiming Tunisian nationality were being held in “squalid” camps abroad. “Tunisian officials are dragging their feet on helping bring (them) home.” Hundreds of civilians, including IS-linked family members, have been fleeing a US-backed offensive against the jihadist group’s last holdout in eastern Syria. “Tunisian children are stuck in these camps with no education, no future, and no way out while their governments seems to barely lift a finger to help them,” Tayler said. In 2017, hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets to protest against the repatriation of IS-linked citizens.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 12, 2019 18:45 UTC