"Our embassies and consulates are actively working to ensure the rights of Russian children in the world as a whole, across all countries. We are also working to ensure the return home of children who have been taken out of the country in breach of the law and procedures, as well as children who have been caught up in war zones," Dolgov said while addressing an interdepartmental working group on international children's rights.
A number of such cases involving Russian children have been recorded, he noted, stressing that repatriation work has been somewhat complicated in war-torn Syria, where children ended up on territory beyond government control.
Meanwhile, Moscow continues to cooperate with the Syrian and Iraqi governments on the issue, according to the commissioner.
Several cases of children being smuggled out of Russia and taken to Syria have been reported over the past year. In one case, a boy was repatriated after his father stole him from his mother, a Leningrad Region resident, and took him first to Chechnya and then to Syria, likely to territories under Daesh terrorist group control. The father has also been arrested. In another case last year, a Dagestani mother took her three children to Syria in the father's temporary absence.
The Daesh took over vast parts of Syria in 2014 amid the ongoing civil war in the country. The jihadist group, which is outlawed in Russia, is known to recruit children fighters, forcing them to take part in training and to execute prisoners.
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