系級 : 中四A
時間 : 2019/02/27
Belgian appeals court says government can’t be forced to bring back ex-Islamic State mothers or their children
BRUSSELS — An appeals court in Belgium
ruled Wednesday that the Belgian government is not obligated to repatriate from
Syria two Belgian women who joined the Islamic State or their six children.
The ruling was a victory for Belgium’s
leaders, who had said they should not have to expend state resources to bring
back Bouchra Abouallal, 25, and Tatiana Wielandt, 26, two women from the
Antwerp area who traveled twice to Syria with their children to live in
theIslamic State’s self-proclaimed “caliphate.”
It was a defeat for the women and their
children, who range in age from 8 months to 7 years. A lower-court judge ruled
in December that the government needed to bring back the children — and that
because it would be a violation of the children’s rights to be separated from
their mothers, the mothers needed to be brought back, as well.
Justice Minister Koen Geens said in a
statement Wednesday that the government will continue to try “to return
children of [foreign terrorist fighters] younger than 10 years. Children can
never be blamed for the actions of their parents.” The government has been
engaged in a complicated diplomatic dance to try to bring home Belgian children
from Syrian camps.
The appeals court threw out the lawsuit on
a technicality, saying it was too similar to a previous lawsuit against the
state that failed.
Wednesday’s decision opened the door to
Belgian authorities’ bringing back the children without their mothers,
something Abouallal and Wielandt have said they would accept. The women, who
are sisters-in-law, are living in the Ain Issa camp in a Kurdish-controlled
area of northern Syria, in conditions that they say are dangerous. They have disavowed
their allegiance to the Islamic State.
Abouallal’s mother, Fatiha, spoke to The
Washington Post this month about her efforts to bring her family home, which
included preparing beds for all six children in anticipation of their return.
Belgian doctors and psychologists who
examined the children in a different camp last fall said one of them is
suffering from medical problems that could prove lethal. A split from their
mothers would be psychologically devastating, said psychologist Gerrit Loots,
because they have been through wartime trauma and have depended exclusively on
their mothers for support.
But the idea of bringing back the mothers
has been politically controversial in a country where many people are in no
mood to forgive the actions of people who allied with a militant group that
targeted the Brussels airport and subway in deadly attacks in 2016.
心得:
伊斯蘭國勢力消亡之後，外籍聖戰士與其親屬成為各個國家的燙手山芋，該如何處置他們是政府頭痛的難題。新聞中比利時的法蒂哈一家，在2010年支離破碎 : 法蒂哈的一雙兒女遠赴敘利亞投奔「伊斯蘭國」，兒子及女婿在當地戰死。現在法蒂哈懇求比利時政府同意她的女兒、媳婦和6名孫子回國。但事與願違，比利時上訴法院27日裁定：比利時政府沒有義務接納兩名曾加入「伊斯蘭國」的母親和其子女返國。
歐美國家作為曾經地恐怖主義受害者，該如何面對恐怖勢力份子所請求的「人權」?
面對大量極端分子要回家，各國的應對方法不盡相同。英國政府早在18日表示「外籍極端分子應在犯案地得到審判」，隔天，一名想回英國的聖戰士新娘，19歲的貝格姆（Shamima Begum）遭到剝奪公民身分。
然而，《經濟學人》則反對當地審判，把戰犯留在敘利亞的方案並不可行，因為敘利亞東北部的庫德族政府並非國家，其初級法院缺乏審判正當程序，而且隨著美軍撤離，庫德族政府恐遭敘利亞總統阿塞德（Bashar al-Assad）和土耳其政府兩面夾擊。當庫德族政府被拔除，留下懷有極端思想的聖戰士給阿塞德，後果更不堪設想，敘利亞可能再度成為恐怖主義溫床。
即使留在中東的聖戰士及眷屬會成為極端主義隱患，歐洲各國仍大部分主張遣返、拒絕伊斯蘭國成員。除英國外，其它歐洲國家也做出應對措施，德國表示可能「有條件遣返極端分子」。法國目前已從敘利亞遣返近150名法籍極端分子，但頻遭恐攻的法國社會對此並沒有共識。比利時法院作出的拒絕返境處分，無疑是當今歐洲在移民和文化衝突氛圍中的一種表態。
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