A supreme legal tribunal in France on Tuesday (April 23rd) rejected appeals by families for their relatives who had gone to Syria to join the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) to return home, AFP reported.

The Council of State, which acts as legal adviser to the French government and top arbiter of administrative cases, said it did not have jurisdiction to decide the matter.

After looking at four such requests on appeal it ruled that such a move would require "negotiations with foreign authorities or an intervention on foreign soil", which was beyond its remit.

France and other European nations have been wrestling with how to handle the hundreds of foreign fighters and their families, many of whom are being held in camps by the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The issue is extremely sensitive in France, where a deadly 2015 attack on the capital claimed by ISIS killed 130 people.

Tuesday's legal decision follows earlier comments by French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner that "no communal repatriation" would be considered, but France would study "case-by-case" whether to allow children of ISIS fighters to return.