Albania repatriates family members of IS fighters

Five Albanian women and 14 children related to Albanian nationals who joined Islamist extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq returned to their homeland on Sunday after being repatriated from Syria's Al Hol camp.

They were brought from Lebanon accompanied by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Interior Minister Bledi Cuci.

"It is a very positive event, I believe, and, of course, we shall not stop here," said Rama at a news conference at Tirana international airport.

The prime minister highly evaluated assistance from Lebanese Gen. Abass Ibrahim and intelligence services from other countries in the repatriating efforts.

The 19 women and children will be taken to a shelter in western port city of Durres where police and social experts will "make all the necessary medical and psychological examination, to be followed by a quarantine period," after which some may be taken from their families.

He did not say whether the women would be prosecuted.

This was the third effort repatriating Albanians from the fighting territories in Syria.

In October last year five Albanians were repatriated and another Albanian child a year earlier.

A few hundred Albanian men joined the Islamic State and other groups fighting in Syria and Iraq in the early 2010s. Many were killed, and their wives and children became stuck in Syrian camps.

About 30 other children and women are believed to be in Syrian camps but Rama said that number is unclear, adding that two women had refused to get in contact for repatriation fearing their lives.

About two-thirds of Albania's 2.85 million people are Muslims.