Kosovar returnees from Syria eager to leave shelter, go home

Hajdar Selimovic calls to his nephew Ismail behind a fence at a detention center where authorities have brought back from Syria 110 Kosovar citizens, mostly women and children in the village of Vranidol on Sunday, April 20, 2019. Four suspected fighters have been arrested, but other returnees will be cared for, before being sent to homes over the coming days, according to Justice Minister Abelard Tahiri.(AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Kosovo police officers secure the area inside a detention center where authorities have brought back from Syria 110 Kosovar citizens, mostly women and children in the village of Vranidol on Sunday, April 20, 2019. Four suspected fighters have been arrested, but other returnees will be cared for, before being sent to homes over the coming days, according to Justice Minister Abelard Tahiri.(AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

VRANIDOLL, Kosovo – Kosovo families have been waiting outside a shelter, trying to talk with relatives who have been repatriated from Syria.

On Saturday, 110 Kosovar citizens — four alleged foreign fighters, 32 women and 74 children — were brought back home with the assistance of the United States.

Hidajete Delia was waiting for hours Monday morning to meet up with her sister Dafina, 23, and her sister's two little children at the camp in Vranidoll, 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Pristina, the capital. She says her sister calls the six years she spent in Syria "hell."

Since 2012, more than 400 people have left Kosovo, a predominantly Muslim nation, to join extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, but authorities say no one has left in the past three years.

Authorities say 87 Kosovo citizens are still in Syria.

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