Kazakh MFA continues work to return Kazakh children from Syria

ASTANA. KAZINFORM Director of the Consular Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Ardak Madiyev commented on the department's work for the return of Kazakh children from the areas of combat operations, Kazinform correspondent reports.

"We will continue working to locate these children. Besides, having gone to the war zone through their own efforts, a lot of Kazakh nationals were involved in these hostilities on the side of terrorist organizations. Many of them were killed, leaving children who are now in refugee camps. We are presently working for the personal identification but it is very hard as the children are small and cannot tell where they came from because they have lived in the combat zone for 3-4 years. Perhaps they were born there," he told a briefing at the Central Communications Service.

Madiyev recalled that 11 people including 9 children have been recently returned home.

"We, together with the competent authorities of Kazakhstan, are now making up an action plan to locate the children and return them to their homeland. In addition to the fact that they need to be returned, the case in hand is the deradicalization of these children, because you know what kind of environment they were in and what they were taught. Therefore, getting into a peaceful life requires a comprehensive approach. We are working with the Ministry of Education and Science in this respect," the representative of the Kazakh MFA underlined.