A Canadian woman has died in a detention center in Turkey after escaping from a camp in the northeast Syria from where she had been refused repatriation by her own government.

The 40-year-old, known by the initials FJ, was the mother of six children who were returned to Canada earlier this year from the al-Roj camp where many families suspected of links to the Islamic State (IS) group remain imprisoned.

According to lawyers and activists, Canadian officials last year refused to repatriate her from the Kurdish-controlled camp along with other Canadian women and children on the grounds that she was considered a security risk.

In comments on Friday, her lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, described it as “blatantly false”, citing strict conditions imposed on other women who had returned from Syria.

In a letter to Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, Kim Pate, a senator who was part of a delegation that met with FJ and other Canadian citizens still imprisoned in Syria last year, called for an independent investigation into her death.

“This is clearly a very tragic outcome, both in terms of FJ’s death and the serious impact it will no doubt have on her children,” the letter said.

“All of this is compounded by the fact that Canada’s refusal to take reasonable steps to maintain this family’s unity … effectively led to this chain of events, including family separation, FJ’s subsequent imprisonment and death in Turkey.”

The letter was co-signed by human rights lawyers Alex Neve and Hadayt Nazami, who were also members of the delegation that traveled to Syria.

The Canadian government has previously been accused of “unwavering cruelty” for making child repatriation arrangements that forced mothers who were not also deemed eligible to choose between keeping their children with them or sending them to Canada.

According to the letter, seen by Middle East Eye, FJ is believed to have fled al-Roj, leaving her children behind, and crossed into Turkey in March.

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Her six children were then repatriated to Canada in May.

FJ was arrested by Turkish authorities in June on suspicion of being a member of a terrorist group and sent to a women’s prison.

She was acquitted on October 15 and sent to an immigration detention center to await deportation. It was here that she was found dead on October 17.

The letter noted that FJ had received at least two consular visits while in prison and may also have been visited by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers.

It called for an independent post-mortem to be carried out to confirm the cause of her death.

MEE has contacted Turkish authorities and Global Affairs Canada for comment.

Tens of thousands of people, many of them foreign nationals, remain imprisoned in northeastern Syria five years after IS was defeated by Kurdish-led forces backed by an international coalition.

In May, the UN Human Rights Council heard that more than 55,000 people, including nearly 30,000 childrenremain illegally detained in camps and prisons in the region.