A Dutch court on Thursday ruled that the government should repatriate 12 women linked to the Daesh terrorist organization as well as 29 children from war-torn Syria.

The court ruled that the women and children should be brought back to the country within four months if the Dutch Prosecutor's Office does not want to lose the right to prosecute them, according to a report by public broadcaster NOS.

The Netherlands wants to prosecute women who have gone to Syria to join the terrorist group.

The decision, which was leaked to the media, was made in a closed session and later confirmed by the court spokesperson speaking to NOS, according to the report.

It was also reported that the court in previous cases had never decided to bring such a large group of suspected Daesh members back to the country in such a period.

In previous cases, a six-month period was given by the court to bring Daesh women back to the Netherlands, while a decision on the four-month period was made for the first time.

Earlier this year, it was announced that the Dutch government brought back five women and 11 children suspected of being members of the terrorist organization or planning a terrorist attack from a camp in northern Syria.

It was reported that the government, which is not in favor of bringing back the Daesh women, decided on doing so to avoid losing the investigation right.

The Dutch Prosecutor's Office demanded an eight-year prison sentence for being a member of a terrorist organization for a woman who was brought back to the country on Wednesday.

Turkey has criticized Western countries for refusing to repatriate their citizens who left to join Daesh in Syria and Iraq, and stripping some of them of their citizenship. Although the 1961 New York Convention made it illegal to leave people stateless, several countries, including Britain and France, have not ratified it, and recent cases have triggered prolonged legal battles.

Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, nearly 5,000 foreign fighters traveled from the European Union to conflict areas in Syria and Iraq, according to estimates by the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, better known as Europol.

The United Nations has also been calling on countries to take back the children from Syria. Many of the children are sons and daughters of Daesh terrorists who once controlled large swathes of Iraq and Syria.