Canadian women and teenage girls held in detention center in northeastern Syria awaiting repatriation

A lawyer representing five Canadians being held at a detention center in northeastern Syria said he had received assurances the federal government would repatriate them but did not know when that would happen.

The two Canadian women and three teenage girls were scheduled to board a repatriation flight with 14 other Canadians last month. But they never made it.

The five Canadians were missing for more than 10 days and later reported that instead of being transported to the pickup point in al-Roj camp, they were arrested and ill-treated by their Kurdish guards, according to their lawyers.

Ottawa Attorney Lawrence Greenspon said Global Affairs Canada has now informed him that it has “received assurances that the Kurdish authorities will facilitate efforts to surrender the five individuals to be brought to Canada.” But the government didn’t say when that might happen.

“While no timeline has been given, it gives families hope for the return of their loved ones,” Greenspon said in an email to CBC News.

The two Canadian women and three girls were part of a federal court case. Greenspon had argued that Canada had violated their rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by allowing them to languish in camps that human rights groups have described as inhumane.

According to Human Rights Watch, the camps in northeastern Syria house IS suspects and their family members.

The last-minute agreement between Greenspon and the government in January came a day before a federal court judge published his decision on whether the government must repatriate all detained Canadians in northeastern Syria, including the men detained there.

The deal removed the women and children from the federal court’s verdict, leaving only men as part of the case.

A federal court judge ruled in January that four men being held in Kurdish prisons were entitled to the federal government submitting a formal request for release “as soon as reasonably possible”. The federal government has appealed this decision and is awaiting a decision.

Greenspon said this latest update from the government shows its “continued efforts under the agreement” to repatriate the women and children who were part of the deal with the government.

These five Canadians have not been charged with any crime in north-eastern Syria.

The RCMP arrested three Canadian women in Montreal after the government turned them back in early April. The RCMP seeks terrorist peace alliances against the women.