A French lawyer has filed an appeal before the administrative judiciary in Paris against an implicit decision by the French Foreign Ministry refusing to repatriate two French girls held in Roj camp in al-Hasakah governorate (northeastern Syria), after their mother died in April, according to Agence France-Presse.
The agency said the appeal targets an undeclared administrative decision issued after the Foreign Ministry failed to respond to repeated requests submitted by lawyer Marie Dosé to repatriate the two girls, aged 10 and 12, who have been living in the camp since December 2018.
According to the text of the appeal reviewed by the agency, the older girl was born in France, while the two sisters remained with their mother inside the camp until her death in April, prompting the lawyer to demand their repatriation on the grounds that they had become orphans.
The lawyer said the two girls are in a “state of extreme vulnerability,” arguing that the Foreign Ministry’s failure to respond to the repatriation requests effectively constitutes an implicit decision of refusal.
She added that the appeal filed this week is based on the argument that “the absence of a response constitutes an absence of reasoning for the refusal decision,” saying this violates a 2022 ruling by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, which addressed states’ procedures in handling requests to repatriate their nationals held in northeastern Syria.
The French Foreign Ministry did not issue an immediate comment on the case, according to Agence France-Presse.
Lawyer: France Had Repatriated Orphans
Lawyer Marie Dosé views the case as different from previous files, explaining that French authorities had routinely repatriated orphaned children even during years when they refused to carry out broad repatriations from the camps.
She said, “The problem is that France has always repatriated orphans, even in 2019 when it refused any repatriation,” adding that other countries have continued in recent months to take back women and children from the camps, including Turkey, Indonesia, and Australia.
She considered that the political developments Syria witnessed after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024 changed the circumstances on which Paris had previously relied.
She added, “We are no longer at all in a geopolitical situation where everything is in the hands of the Kurds and in a lawless zone. There are now diplomatic relations with Syria.”
Hundreds of French Nationals Left for Syria and Iraq
Data from France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office, issued at the start of this year, states that 1,490 people have left France since 2012 for the Iraqi-Syrian region, including 417 adult women.
According to the same data, 395 adults have so far returned to France, including 176 women, in addition to 361 minors, 325 of whom are still underage, while 36 others have reached adulthood.
France’s most recent repatriation operation dates back to mid-September 2025 and included ten children and three women aged between 18 and 34, according to the agency.
Syrian Calls for Repatriation
The case comes as the Syrian government continues to call on foreign countries to take back their nationals present in al-Hol and Roj camps in the northeast of the country.
Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ibrahim Olabi, called during a Security Council session on June 24 on all concerned states to assume their responsibilities toward their citizens in the two camps, urging cooperation to find lasting solutions and speed up their return to their countries.
Olabi described al-Hol and Roj as “camps of hell,” saying that thousands of women and children of multiple nationalities had been deprived for years of basic services, including healthcare and education.
The Syrian government announced in February the closure of al-Hol camp after transferring its residents to Aq Burhan camp in rural Aleppo, while the file of Roj camp remained under review.
Previous Plans to Evacuate Roj Camp
On February 21, Sheikhmous Ahmed, co-chair of the Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees Affairs in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), said Roj camp would be evacuated soon.
He explained at the time that the camp housed about 730 foreign families from 42 countries, alongside 15 Iraqi families and 11 Syrian families, with a total of nearly 2,225 people.
He added that the camp remained under the administration of the Autonomous Administration and the protection of the Asayish forces, noting that there was a decision to evacuate it at a later stage.
Return of Australians Reignited Debate
The case also coincided with ongoing repatriations by some countries from Roj camp, as Australia recently took back a group of 13 people, including four women and nine children, who had been living in the camp in northeastern al-Hasakah.
No charges were brought against members of the group upon their arrival, according to the Australian Federal Police, but authorities later arrested two women, a mother and her daughter, in Melbourne and charged them with offenses related to detaining and enslaving a woman during their presence in Syria in 2014.
Authorities also arrested a third woman in Sydney and charged her with offenses related to entering a prohibited conflict zone and joining a listed terrorist organization, a step that revived political and security debate inside Australia over how to deal with returnees from camps in northeastern Syria.
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