Canada received assurances from Kurdish authorities it can repatriate 5 Canadians from Syria: lawyer

A lawyer representing five Canadians held in a detention camp in northeastern Syria says they have been given assurances that the federal government will return them, but don’t know when that will happen.

Two Canadian women and three teenage girls were supposed to board a repatriation plane last month with 14 other Canadians. But he never made it.

The five Canadians were missing for more than 10 days, and were later reported to have been detained and mistreated by Kurdish guards instead of being transported to a pick-up point in the al-Roj camp, according to lawyers.

Ottawa’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, said Global Affairs Canada has now told it that it has “received assurances that the Kurdish authorities will facilitate” efforts to hand over the five people who will be brought to Canada. But the government did not say when that would happen.

“Although there is no set time frame, this gives families hope for the return of their loved ones,” Greenspon told CBC News in an email.

The two Canadian women and three girls are part of a federal court case. Greenspon argued that by allowing them to languish in camps that human rights groups described as inhumane conditions, Canada had violated their rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Camps in northeastern Syria are holding ISIS suspects and their family members, according to Human Rights Watch.

The last-minute agreement between Greenspon and the government in January was made a day before a Federal Court judge released his decision on whether the government must return all Canadians detained in northeastern Syria, including those in prison there.

The agreement excluded women and children from the Federal Court ruling, leaving only men as part of the case.

A Federal Court judge ruled in January that four people held in a Kurdish prison have the right to have the federal government make a formal request for their release “as soon as possible.” The federal government appealed the decision and is awaiting the decision.

Greenspon said the government’s latest update showed “continuing efforts under the agreement” to return women and children who were part of the deal with the government.

The five Canadians have not been charged in northeastern Syria with a crime.

RCMP arrested three Canadian women in Montreal after the government extradited them in early April. RCMP are seeking a terrorism peace bond against the woman.