Norway’s new left-center government doesn’t intend to bring home Norwegian women who voluntarily traveled to Syria to join the brutal terrorist organization IS. One of them now claims she regrets her decision to join IS, as she languishes in the Al Hol prison camp.
“Norwegian authorities keep pointing out that they don’t have any responsibility for us,” one of the women, Aisha Shazadi Kausar, told state broadcaster NRK. The child she had with an IS warrior is half-Norwegian, though, and she wants him to have a better life, adding that “I made some very bad decisions” in deciding to leave Norway several years ago when the war in Syria was raging.
New Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt of the Labour Party, however, told NRK on Tuesday that Norway “has a general position that we won’t bring home those who have traveled off as foreign warriors.” Huitfeldt said that all Norwegians abroad have a right to consular help, “but I can’t comment on the situation beyond that.”
Four Norwegian women currently remain at the Al Hol and Roj camps. All have been charged by Norway’s police intelligence unit PST for their participation in a terrorist organization. Two of them have formally requested help to return to Norway. Both have children. Early last year the former government did agree to bring one woman back to Norway, but only because her child was seriously ill and needed medical attention unavailable at the camp.
newsinenglish.no staff