Two Canadian women and three children on way home from detention camps in Syria

Two women and three children who were temporarily missing in Syria after failing to board a repatriation flight to Canada in April are now flying home.

Two women and three children who were temporarily missing in Syria after failing to board a repatriation flight to Canada in April are finally on their way home.

They were among a group of 19 people Canada agreed to bring home from Kurdish-operated prison camps in northeastern Syria in January.

The Canadian citizens had been held for years at displaced persons camps in a region now controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

The other 14 arrived in April. The five who are now en route had failed to show up for the flight, with neither their lawyers nor the Canadian government seemingly aware of what had happened to them for several days.

One of their lawyers later said that the women and children had been detained by Kurdish guards who would not allow them to travel and board the plane at that time.

Ottawa lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, who advocated for the repatriation of the 19 Canadians in Federal Court, said the return of the final five is very good news.

“I have spoken to their families here in Canada and they are over the moon, delighted and just overjoyed,” he said.