By Canadian Press

Two Canadian women and three children on way home from detention camps in Syria

Jul 6, 2023 | 11:10 AM

OTTAWA — Two women and three children who were temporarily missing in Syria after failing to board a repatriation flight to Canada in April are now flying home.

The women and children were among a group of 19 people Canada agreed to bring home from Kurdish-operated prison camps in northeastern Syria in January.

The other 14 people arrived in April but these women and children failed to show up for the flight and neither their lawyers nor the Canadian government knew what happened for several days.

Ottawa lawyer Lawrence Greenspon reached the agreement earlier this year to bring home the women and children from Syria who had been held for years at displaced persons camps in a region now controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Greenspon says the families of the returning Canadians are “overjoyed with the return of their loved ones.” 

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In May, the Federal Court of Appeal overturned a decision four Canadian men held in Syrian camps were entitled to Ottawa’s help to return home.

— With files from Jim Bronskill

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 6, 2023.

The Canadian Press