Position statement DATE
19 April 2018 2017-2018/08
COMMITTEE
Committee for Welfare, Public Health and Family Justice Committee
We should make sure that Belgian children from terrorist conflict zones can count on our help Children's rights commissioner Bruno Vanobbergen supports the call from Unicef and children's rights organisations on the ground for the safe and accompanied return of Belgian children of (former) IS wives to Belgium. These children are victims, not perpetrators. Their rights have already been violated multiple times: the right to care, the right to a safe environment and the right to education. We must make sure that we help them. ‘Help’ essentially involves two aspects: 1. Making every effort to repatriate from conflict zones Belgian minors and children born locally who have a Belgian father or mother but whose Belgian nationality has not yet been officially confirmed, where necessary and where possible in collaboration with international organisations (UN, Unicef, Red Cross etc.). 2. Making every effort to reintegrate those children and young people into Belgian society, with all the professional help that is needed to achieve this.
1. Increasingly urgent situation Since the decline of the ‘Islamic State’ terrorist movement in Syria and Iraq, the possible return of Belgian ‘foreign fighters’ to Belgium has been an issue. A number of these returnees are also minors: from teenagers who went to Syria or Iraq themselves to take up arms, to very young children who were taken from Belgium to the conflict zone by their parents or who were born there. According to OCAD/OCAM, the Belgian Coordination Unit for Threat