European States’ Obligations to Repatriate the Children Detained in Camps in Northeast Syria separation of a child from their parents, the elements mentioned above are concrete rights and not simply factors in the determination of the best interests of the child.491 In light of the abovementioned legal standards, repatriations of children detained in the camps without their primary caregivers may be against the best interests of the child and amount to arbitrary or unlawful interference with family life. Children detained in northeast Syria must be repatriated with their primary caregivers, unless the parents give their free and informed consent for the separation, or a competent authority subject to judicial review determines that it is in the best interests of the child to be separated from their family 492 and that no other option can fulfill the child’s best interests. 493 While some primary caregivers refuse to give consent for their children to be repatriated alone, others have formally given up custody of their children in order to save them from the camps. Yet, whether the caregivers’ consent can be considered “free and informed” is open to question. In the absence of the primary caregivers’ free and informed consent, a competent authority in European States must determine that it is in the best interests of the child to be repatriated without their primary caregiver. If the best-interest determination is absent, inaccurate, or incomplete, repatriation of children detained in the camps without their primary caregivers may amount to unlawful or arbitrary interference with family life. 494 In the context of children affected by armed conflict, in the vast majority of cases it is in the best interest of the child not to be separated from their parents.495 In the assessment and determination of children’s best interests, European authorities should consider that children in the camps are generally very young, affected by armed conflict with high levels of trauma and emotional/psychological health problems, 496 and dependent on their 491 CRC, Articles 9, 18 and 20. See also CommRC, “General Comment No. 14 (2013),” para. 58. 492 UNCCT, “Handbook Children Affected by the Foreign-Fighter Phenomenon: Ensuring A Child Rights- Based Approach,” 2019, para. 138. 493 CommRC, “General Comment No. 14 (2013),” para. 64. 494 See: ECtHR, “X v. Latvia,” Application No. 27853/09, 26 November 2013, para. 92-108; ECtHR, “Vojnity v. Hungary”, Application No. 29617/07, 12 May 2013, para. 38-42. See: “(…) close bonds and relationships, either with their parents, or with other caregivers. A close relationship helps children to develop trust in other people and in their surroundings, which is also seen as crucial for healthy emotional development; (…),” see: ICRC, “Workshop Report – Children Affected by Armed Conflict and Other Situations of Violence,” Geneva, 14-16 March 2011, p. 15. 496 RSI, “Europe’s Guantanamo: The Indefinite Detention of European Women and Children in North East Syria,” 2020, para. 39-40. 495 83