“The EU citizens there are not necessarily people member states will be rushing to welcome back in a disorganized manner,” said one of the officials.
The camps, run by U.S. Kurdish allies in Syria, relied primarily on international aid, including hundreds of millions of dollars from the U.S.
Following President Donald Trump’s move to attempt to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, officials in Brussels were concerned this could trigger both a humanitarian and security crisis in Syria unless the funding gaps are plugged.
The two camps house primarily women and children, and none of the people in these “closed camps” have been charged with crimes. Human rights organizations have pointed out some of the people in those camps fled ISIS themselves and people have been detained in dire conditions, with allegations of torture and violence.
“We are very conscious we have a new situation with the camps handed over to the central government and the government having difficulties controlling its territory,” said the second EU official. “We need to find measures that ensure that the terrorists don’t come to Europe.”
In recent months the EU has made overt movements to push the millions of Syrians within its borders to return to their home country after the end of Assad’s rule, and a 14-year civil war. In the hours and days after his downfall, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Sweden and the U.K. paused the handling of asylum applications, with authorities saying the fears from which Syrians fled no longer existed.
