Dagestani children's Ombudsperson receives 213 appeals about children removal to Syria and Iraq

These appeals concern about 240 children who were taken from Dagestan to Iraq and Syria; however, there may be about a thousand children in these countries, Marina Yezhova, the Dagestani children’s Ombudsperson, has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the authorities of the Russian Federation are trying to return 48 children from the Iraqi city of Mosul, who had been taken to Syria and Iraq by their parents who joined terrorists.

"Given that many went there pregnant and gave birth to their kids there; and during the armed conflict, each woman still had two or three newborns, then the figure 240 can be multiplied by three," the TASS quotes Ms Yezhova as saying.

According to her story, she received appeals concerning the export of children from almost all cities of Dagestan. Most of them were taken during last five years, but there are still those wishing to join militants in Syria, she has noted.

The residents of Dagestan, who had identified their children kept in a shelter in Baghdad, have already begun collecting documents that could confirm the origin of their children and return them to their homeland.

Anna Kuznetsova, the Russian Children's Ombudsperson, said in her Instagram that the number of appeals reporting the removal of children, whose parents had joined the “Islamic State” (IS) militants, has grown.

She noted that she had discussed the chances to return children to Russia with Turko Daudov, the Chechnya's Deputy Mufti for External Affairs and Vice-President of the Akhmat Kadyrov Public Fund.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.