A Canadian woman that spent over two years in Syrian prison camps has returned home from Iraq after writing to Ottawa to secure an emergency travel document.
While talking about her return, Paul Champ, the lawyer of the woman, said returned to Canada recently and was reunited with her five-year-old daughter and other members of her family.
Her daughter was born in Syria but came to Canada earlier this year to stay with her aunt.
The woman’s struggle to return home highlights the problems encountered by several Canadians among thousands of foreign nationals detained in Syrian camps by Kurdish forces that reclaimed the embattled region of Iraq and the Levant.
She believed she was on the verge of getting a travel document from Canadian authorities last summer but she took her case to Federal Court when the process stalled.
Champ said: “It was shameful that my client had to sue the Canadian government to force them to give her an emergency passport.
“We still have no explanation why Canada left her stranded in Irbil, Iraq, a few blocks from the Canadian consulate that could have issued her an emergency passport at any time.”
Champ said the RCMP deployed officers to Irbil to interview the woman in late October and that the Mounties met the woman when she arrived in Canada and have applied for a peace bond.
He said: “I presume the RCMP sees a peace bond application as prudent in the circumstances given the nature of her travel, but I anticipate it won’t be maintained for long. There is no evidence she is a threat to anyone and there are no charges against her.
“What’s most important right now is that my client is safe with family, seeing her mother after almost eight years and her daughter after eight months.”
While talking about her daughter’s reaction when she saw her mother, Champ said: “It was a surprise for the little girl when her mother walked in the room. They hugged tightly and the girl kept stroking her mother’s face and hair and laughing. I don’t think she could believe it.”
The woman was born in Somalia, relocated to Canada with her family in 1993 and became a citizen of Canada in 2004.
She left Canada for Turkey in 2014 with the aim of travelling to Syria.
In an affidavit filed in Federal Court, she said: “Shortly thereafter, I realized that I had been manipulated into going to that country.
“While in Syria, there were several times that I tried to leave, but I was not allowed to do so. I was moved around numerous times. I was not allowed to speak to my family or friends. My phone was taken away. I was completely isolated from the outside world.”
At last, she contacted Peter Galbraith, a retired American diplomat that was offering help to women and children who wanted to get out of the camps.
In his affidavit that he filed with the court, Galbraith narrated how he arranged the daughter’s release into the custody of her mother’s sister and later persuaded officials to release her.
Galbraith said the woman offered extensive information to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation about ISIL suspects and American children that were kidnapped.
