Bringing back IS wives and children from Syria will be better for national security, the counter terrorism agency NCTV said in a confidential memo in 2018, the Volkskrant reported on Friday afternoon.

The memo was made public by lawyers for 23 jihadi brides and 55 children during a court hearing aimed at getting the Netherlands to soften its hard-line approach to repatriation.

‘Not bringing back these children carries more security risks with in,’  the NCTV said. The children are still young and have not been indoctrinated and if they are not brought back, they could pose a risk in the future.

They may become embittered and that would make them easy prey for recruiters for jihad, who have become embedded in the close jihadi network in the prison camps, the memo, which has been heavily redacted, said.

The cabinet has repeatedly argued it is not safe send officials to the prison camps to bring back children. However, the Volkskrant reported earlier that the Dutch refusal to consider the issue is causing immense frustration among officials tasked with counter-terrorism work.

‘These children are only getting older and they will return to the Netherlands however they can,’ one told the paper. ‘Now they are young, we can properly manage their return.’