“Our priority is to save the children”, says Jean-Yves Le Drian, “Estelle will wait”

“Our priority is to save the children, provided that the women accept that the children return to France”Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, said Friday March 26 on franceinfo about the French detainees in Syria. The children that France takes out of the camps are “those who are declared orphans and those who are declared able to leave for France with the authorization of their mother”, they must be 10 years old at the most, specifies the minister.

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Asked about the mothers of families who ask to be repatriated to be tried in France, in particular Estelle who testified on franceinfo, Jean-Yves Le Drian replied: “Estelle will wait again, unfortunately for her”. “It will be necessary to ask the question of how to judge all of these people, but it is not only the French. This question arises in Belgium, in the Netherlands, in Germany”, said the minister.

“We have the same position: the actors of these crimes must be tried on the spot in a process that can only take shape when the military situation is clarified, which is not the case.”

Jean-Yves Le Drian

to franceinfo

Jean-Yves Le Drian would like to point out that “this area is still a war zone, last week there were armed clashes”. It indicates that “several operations which are almost assimilated to military operations” have already been made “to go and look for these children who had been identified in the camps, with the authorization of the Kurdish authorities who, for the moment, are responsible for these camps. But around the Kurdish authorities, you have Turkish forces, Russian forces , Syrian forces. In short, everyone is in an extremely small space. “

Currently, “there are a few hundred French” in the camps in Syria, but also “A few thousand foreign fighters and there are several tens of thousands of Iraqis and Syrians in the same camps. So this is a very big problem.”, adds the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs.