Australian wives and children of Islamic State killers have pleaded to be allowed to return to the country after years spent in a Syrian internment camp.
A group of 12 women and 22 children – aged between 5 and 56 – who left Australia to join their male partners fighting for ISIS have been held in the al-Roj detention camp in north-eastern Syria for four years.
They claim they are trapped in a “living hell” with no sign of relief after the Islamist terror group was militarily defeated in 2019.
Their husbands were all killed or imprisoned after the defeat of ISIS.
In 2019, eight Australian children were repatriated by the Morrison government, and in October 2022, another 13 children and four mothers were allowed to return home by the Albanian government.
But those left behind see no hope of a return and stress that the uncertainty is torture.
“We were told we were all going home,” said one of the two Australian women in the camp who went with the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘But for the past two years we have not been given any explanation as to why we were left behind, while the others are now healing and moving on with their lives.
“This is just a form of endless torture.”
A group of 12 Australian women and 22 children, aged between 5 and 56, are easy targets in the al-Roj detention camp in northeastern Syria, where many of them have been held for four years (pictured is the al-Roj camp in September 2020)
The camp, located near the Iraqi border, consists of dozens of tents pitched on a dirt and gravel field surrounded by a metal fence.
Al-Roj is home to approximately 2,600 prisoners from 55 countries, many of whom are ISIS brides and their children. The camp is guarded by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and conditions are appalling.
Fresh food and clean water are scarce and the camp’s location in the Syrian desert means it is both scorching hot and freezing cold.
“We are being kept in the dark and swept under the carpet as if we are not living, breathing human beings,” one of the women told the publication, through retired lawyer Robert van Aalst.
She added that everyone in the detention camp was sick and that obtaining medicine was a daily struggle.
Boys as young as 10 have reportedly been separated from their mothers and siblings and transferred to adult detention centres in other camps.
One of the arrested Australian women said her son bites his nails until they bleed and suffers from nightmares because he fears being taken away from his family.
There would also be regular assaults and gunshots.
The ISIS brides say they prefer to raise their children themselves, fearing that the school in the al-Roj camp could radicalize them.
“Our children want to go to school, make friends and go to a park that is not closed off by a fence and soldiers,” one woman said.
The camp, located near the Iraqi border, consists of dozens of tents pitched on a dirt and gravel field surrounded by a metal fence.
In November last year, the Federal Court dismissed an application by the charity Save The Children Australia (STCA) for the Australian government to repatriate the women and children still held there.
The charity appealed the decision, which was again overturned by the Federal Court in June this year.
The court ruled that the Australian government had no control over the detention of the women and children, but admitted that if the government did wish to repatriate the detainees, it would be “a relatively straightforward task”.
The STCA has now been granted special leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. Oral arguments will be heard on 23 September.
The charity’s CEO, Mat Tinkler, said the ISIS brides and children “living in the stifling desert heat, without reliable electricity or access to adequate health care or education.
“Their situation is getting worse by the day,” he said in a statement.
‘Australian citizenship must mean something, and we urge the Federal Government to end their suffering by immediately returning these families to their homeland, to safety in Australia. This would nip this legal action in the bud.
‘These are innocent Australian children who have been deeply traumatised and suffered, yet are now left to languish in desert camps, rapidly losing all hope.
Al-Roj holds approximately 2,600 prisoners from 55 countries, many of whom are ISIS brides and their children (pictured is a woman in the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria)
Many people living in the camp are unable to access fresh food, clean water and medicine (pictured is a child hiding in al-Roj in 2023).
‘What I find difficult to understand is that the Australian government can now end their suffering by bringing them home and giving them the chance to have a real life, but our political leaders choose to do nothing.
‘Just a month ago, the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Finland repatriated women and children from the camps, proving once again that repatriation is possible.
“Despite the ruling, we call on the government to end this endless impasse and finish what they started almost two years ago: repatriate the remaining children and their mothers before it is too late.”
In late 2022, the Australian government announced plans to repatriate 16 women and 42 children from the camp, but no further progress has been made on the potential repatriation.
Many of the children were born in Syria and have never seen Australia, and their mothers say they were forced, tricked or pressured into marrying ISIS fighters.
The Department of Home Affairs said it “remains concerned about the remaining women and children with Australian ties in the IDP camps”.
The ministry added that government assistance is “very limited due to the extremely dangerous security situation and because we do not have an embassy or consulate in Syria.”
A boy living in al-Roj camp is photographed in October last year