OTTAWA — A Canadian mother struggling to leave a Syrian detention camp with her six children was dealt another setback this week when a fire damaged their tent home, an advocacy group says.
The woman from Quebec and a number of her children were treated at a clinic after the fire, which started in the tent's kitchen area, said Alexandra Bain of the group Families Against Violent Extremism.
"The mom is in really bad shape in terms of being able to communicate or function," Bain said in an interview.
"My understanding is she's quite distraught."
The family is among the many foreign nationals in Syrian camps and prisons run by Kurdish forces that reclaimed the war-torn region from the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Bain has spoken with the family's neighbours in al-Roj camp, and said she informed Global Affairs Canada of the fire.
Global Affairs told The Canadian Press it cannot comment on specific cases due to privacy considerations.
Bain, whose organization helps families with loved ones caught up in violent extremist groups, has been in regular touch with the woman for months. However, she has not heard directly from her since the fire.
Neighbours in the camp told Bain they are trying to help the family's young children.
"I think the physical injuries are secondary to the to the trauma it's put the mom through," Bain said. "She's at her wit's end anyway, as you can well imagine."
Lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, who has been trying to assist the family, said recently that the federal government will not help the Quebec woman return to Canada because officials believe she poses a security risk.
It means the woman, whose identity is not public, must stay in the camp with her children or send them without her on a pending flight to Canada, where they have no other family.
Greenspon said the government wrote on June 21 that the woman has "extremist ideological beliefs'' that may lead her to act violently, and it could not ensure that no such conduct would occur in Canada.
He said the excuse was unacceptable, arguing the government could deal with the woman as needed through Canada's justice system.
Greenspon reached an agreement with the federal government earlier this year to bring home six Canadian women and 13 children from Syria who had initially been part of a legal action. Some of these 19 Canadians have already returned.
However, the Quebec woman was not part of the court case.
Another airlift facilitated by Canada is expected in early July, and Greenspon was hoping the woman and her children would be able to get on that flight.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2023.
Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press
