Repatriations of foreign women and children affiliated with Islamic State from detention camps in northeast Syria hit a record high in 2022, Kurdish authorities said.

Thousands of foreigners including women and children had gone to Syria to live in IS' so-called "caliphate" until 2019, when US-backed Kurdish forces snatched the last pocket of Syrian territory from the jihadists.

Fleeing women and children were housed in overcrowded detention camps run by Kurdish authorities and international NGOs, who had pushed for repatriations due to rising violence and dire conditions in the camps.

Some 517 women and children have been repatriated so far for 2022, to France, Germany and Tajikistan, according to the report.

Returns numbered 324 in 2021, 281 in 2020 and 342 in 2019. (Reuters)