Berlin - The German government has for the first time agreed to
allow the children of Islamic State members in Syria to be resettled
in Germany, according to media reports.
The Foreign Ministry has "for some time" worked to get vulnerable
children out of Syrian refugee camps, reported public broadcasters
NDR and WDR along with the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
The ministry's efforts were revealed as part of a case under way
before an administrative court in Berlin.
A request by dpa to the Foreign Ministry seeking confirmation went
unanswered.
In the lawsuit that divulged the ministry's actions, an attorney is
trying to get the government to bring two orphans from a Syrian
refugee camp to their grandparents in Germany.
The mother of the two girls - aged 4 and nearly 2 years old - was a
member of the Islamic State extremist group from the German state of
Baden-Wuerttemberg.
She is reported to have died in the battle for Baghuz, which was the
militia's last stronghold in Syria until it fell earlier this year to
Kurdish-led fighters.
Dirk Schoenian, the lawyer in the Berlin case, told the German media
outlets that despite the ministry's best efforts, it remained unclear
when the two girls may arrive in Germany.
He described the condition of the refugee camp they are in as
appalling. "In two or three months, the children may no longer be
alive," he was quoted as saying.