According to Wallström, the Swedish government is now doing everything in its power to help the children, who are currently being held in camps across the Middle East.
"The government is now working intensively to ensure that children with links to Sweden who are still in Syria get the help they need. There should be no doubt that the government does everything it can for these children, and if possible they should be brought to Sweden," Wallström said on her Facebook page.
Wallström stressed that the children are in different situations; some of them are orphans, whereas others are with parents who have arrested for crimes committed while in Daesh' ranks.
"Identifying Swedes who may have been born there is difficult. In the largest camp alone, there are about 76,000 people," Wallström said, stressing that the children's situation must be handled with legal certainty and in the their best interest. She also called for cooperation between international actors, Swedish authorities and Swedish municipalities who are to receive the children.
Wallström also requested that humanitarian work be intensified and stressed that Sweden maintains close contact with its Scandinavian peers "in order to act jointly and in a similar way". At the same time, she also stressed that each case must be handled individually.
READ MORE: Sweden Looking Forward to Welcoming 230 Daesh Returnees and Their Children
Wallström's statement irked many of her fellow Swedes, including politicians.
"I wish there was just as much commitment to bring in girls who are being married away during summer holidays or forcibly sent to their homeland on 'educational trips' as there is right now to bring back jihadists' children. This country is deranged", MP Hanif Bali of the liberal-conservative Moderate Party tweeted, adding that 19 children had disappeared in the city of Linköping alone in 2017.
"To all apostles of kindness who want to 'take home the poor kids', wake the hell up," blogger Micke K tweeted, posting a picture of a toddler with a gun aiming at a bound-up prisoner.
Alla godhetsapostlar som vill ”ta hem baarnen”
— Micke K (@MickeK69) 13 апреля 2019 г.
Vakna för helvete#svpol #migpol pic.twitter.com/UAYSKfNMNE
Blogger and children's writer Katerina Janouch claimed there was an ongoing "propaganda campaign" from the nation's foremost media, including the leading newspapers such as Dagens Nyheter, to take "home" the terrorists' children. "As usual, there is no impact assessment or responsibility in the discussions," Janouch said.
READ MORE: Western Muslims More Extremism-Prone Than Migrant — Swedish Study
"Our moral obligation to protect Daesh children from growing up in a Daesh environment here in Sweden has NO legal or political prospects. The children will grow up in the same ideological environment as we now pretend that we will save them from," Bassam Al-Baghdady, writer, translator, journalist and founder of the Centre for Secular Education, tweeted.
"Sweden's governments have been and are a disaster for the new Sweden I fail to recognise. Daesh jihadists are taken in with their children and we have to pay for their liver and trials that lead to nothing. I detest the new Sweden!" writer Ramona Fransson tweeted.
"Who wants this child as a classmate?", another user wondered, posting a photograph of a Daesh child executioner with a gun. "There'll be fun games in the nursery school in the future, beheadings will replace cowboys and Indians," he added.
Vem vill ha detta barnet som klasskompis? pic.twitter.com/5NRYnjqJzv
— DissiDenter (@dissidenter) 13 апреля 2019 г.
Several Swedish families are currently planning to go to Syria to provide medication and try to bring home some of the children whose parents joined Daesh, national broadcaster SVT reported, calling it a "desperate cry for help".
READ MORE: 'I'd Rather F*****g Detonate': Jihad-Mocking VIDEO by Swedish TV Rocks Public
Around 150 jihadists and their wives, as well as 80 children, are expected to return 'home' from the remains of the self-proclaimed 'caliphate' in the Middle East. As was previously reported, up to 230 returnees may be split between 35 municipalities.
* Daesh, also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS/the Islamic State, is a terrorist group that is banned in Russia and a number of other countries
