Twelve women and 28 children will be repatriated to the Netherlands from detention camps in northern Syria, the Dutch government announced on Tuesday, making the country’s largest group yet to be brought back.

They will face charges on their return for joining the ISIS extremist group.

The move comes after a Dutch court in May recommended that the women be returned immediately to the Netherlands, or that a commitment to return then be made within four months.

“The cabinet is transferring twelve Dutch women suspected of terrorist offences and their 28 children to the Netherlands,” two government ministers said.

“The women will be arrested after arrival in the Netherlands and will be tried,” Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra and Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius said in a letter to parliament.

The ministerial letter declined to say from which camp the women and children will be fetched or when, adding only it will be done via a “special operation.”

The children will be taken into the care of the Dutch child protection services, the ministers added.

Source: National News Agency