It was the last hours of this Monday when lawyer specializing in criminal law, José Luis Laso, contacted some of the families who have been following closely the situation of Spanish women and children who have been imprisoned in north-eastern Syria for almost four years. He told them that a Spanish plane flew from Kuwait to Madrid’s Torrejón airport with 15 inmates in the Syrian camps with roots in Spain, including two women and 13 minors. The Spanish authorities had kept silent about the repatriation operation until the last moment. So much so that the grandparents of some minors found out from the press 12 hours after landing. The device landed in the Spanish capital around 11 p.m. on Monday, almost two days after a Spanish diplomat, Guillermo Anguera, in Syrian territory under the rule of the Kurdish authorities, received the document handing over the 15 inmates of Spanish nationality. 44 months had passed since they were located by EL PAÍS in the camps for families linked to the Islamic State (ISIS). At that time, the government decided in favor of their return for the first time.
Despite the elapsed time, the ups and downs between the Interior and Foreign Ministries on the adequacy of the repatriation and the lack of communication between the authorities and the families, this Wednesday one of the minors’ grandmothers recognized her joy : “I am very much in favor of the government grateful that brought my grandchildren back; It took time, but in the end it came true.” He did what then-Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell pledged to do in October 2019 and what family members remember and often mention: repatriating Spanish nationals from camps in the north-east of Syria. This pledge by the former head of diplomacy was thwarted by objections from the security forces and the risks of having women investigated by the National Court for their links to jihadist cells in Spain.
The work of repatriation for Spain and the rest of the foreign countries with nationals involved in this caliphate and born in the summer of 2014 was arduous. They have called for the work of the spy services, but also the diplomatic and consular efforts of Syria’s neighboring countries – according to Europa Press, a foreign official visited the Spaniards detained in the camps before the summer to assess the repatriation. The Al Roj and Al Hol camps are guarded by militants from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an armed Kurdish-Arab group that ensures self-government in the northern and north-eastern regions of the country. In support of this militia’s fight against ISIS, US forces are actively involved in counting and examining the inmates in the camps.
The repatriation process of Spaniard Luna Fernández, Yolanda Martínez and the 13 children they look after, which culminated on Monday evening, had to go through all these filters. A few hours after the 15 began their journey, the foreign relations department of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), the de facto Kurdish government in the region, released a statement detailing the handover of the detainees to Spain informed the Al Roj camp, located in the northeast corner next to the Turkish border. Attached to the note was a photograph showing diplomat Guillermo Anguera, identified as “Adviser to the Foreign Ministry” and at the head of the Spanish delegation.
The meeting was chaired by AANES’ No. 2 on foreign relations, Fener al Kait – the extradition of inmates from the camps is usually managed by department head Abdul Karim Omar, the Kurdish spokesman abroad – along with Khaled Ibrahim, a member of the local one government in charge of organizing the camps, Lana Hussein from the Kurdish YPG militia and Howaida Mohamed Salim Mohamed from the Women’s Bureau. In another picture, Al Kait and the Spanish official pose while holding some documents side by side. The same Monday, the scene was repeated with a delegation from Barbados, to whom he handed over a woman and two minors.
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Guillermo Anguera, born 60 years ago in Ceuta, is a third-class ministerial plenipotentiary, a diplomat with the ability to represent a foreign country on a specific mission. The diplomat has gained extensive experience during a 25-year career from North Africa to Central America, passing through international organizations such as the UN and the European Union, where in recent years he has served as a member of the Permanent Mission of Spain. Last May he was invited to a conference in Granada on preventing violent extremism.
There are several ways to bring back foreigners linked to ISIS jihadism who are imprisoned in Al Roj and Al Hol to their countries of origin. One of them crosses the Iraqi border a few kilometers east en route to Erbil Airport under the control of the Iraqi Kurds. Another that Spain has chosen this Monday is to use US military planes to fly to Kuwait and from there to the port of destination – the Persian Gulf country has also been chosen by the Spanish government to carry out the repatriations from Afghanistan after the country was taken over by the Taliban in August 2021―. The United States government, fundamental supporter of AANES, has expressed a willingness in recent months to work with countries seeking to return their nationals. And so it was with Spain.
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