Belgium will bring six orphans home from Kurdish-controlled camps in Syria after the deaths of their militant parents, Finance Minister Alexander de Croo said Thursday.
"These are children who were born in our country and who today no longer have parents," the minister told VRT public radio after a cabinet decision.
Three French militants and their nine children returned to France on Tuesday after being expelled by Turkey, legal sources said, a day after France took back 12 children of French extremists from camps in northern Syria.
The returns mark an acceleration in the repatriation of children of French nationals who traveled to Iraq or Syria to join extremist groups, amid growing pressure on Western countries to take back their combatants.
A second group of 12 children, mostly orphans, was flown to France on Monday, following on a first group of six children in March.
At the end of May, the number of extremists who had been returned to France stood at 277, according to official figures. Many were handed over by Turkey.
Separately, Paris has been working with Syrian Kurdish authorities, who are pressuring foreign nations to take back militant families languishing in detention centers or sprawling camps in Syria's northeast.
So far the French government has baulked at taking back adults, focusing mainly on young children who are orphaned.
