Australia prepares to repatriate ISIS nationals from NE Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Australia announced it works on plans to repatriate dozens of women and children, who had previously joined the Islamic State Organization (ISIS), from northeast Syria.
Australia will repatriate more than 20 of its citizens, most of them children, but will not be able to bring all Australians out of northeast Syria’s camps at once.
More than 20 Australian women and more than 40 children – the widows, sons and daughters of killed or jailed ISIS members – remain within Hawl and Roj camps in northeast Syria, The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported on Sunday.
Hawl Camp, 45 km east of the city of Hasakah, is a house for 55.829 individuals, including 28.725 Iraqis, 18.850 Syrians and 8.254 of foreign nationalities, according to the latest statistics obtained by North Press.
Roj Camp, one of several detention camps in northeast Syria, holds about 727 families, numbering 2.310 individuals including 1.582 children.
Residents of the camp are family members of ISIS who joined its ranks during era of the ISIS so-called Islamic Caliphate in 2014.
The Australian government will repatriate the women and children on batches during the coming months, according to The Guardian.
The newspaper added, “Many of the women held in the camps say they were coerced or tricked into travelling to Syria by husbands who have since died. Most of the Australian children are under six; several were born in the camps.”
In April, UN Human Rights Council addressed a letter to the Australian government to raise concerns about 46 Australian citizens, including 30 children, held in camps in northeast Syria in order to pressure it to act.
In February, a group of 12 UN experts accused Australia of failing to prevent the “sheer obliteration of the rights” of its own citizens including children who are held in camps in northeast Syria.
In 2019, the Australian government led by PM Scott Morrison refused to repatriate ISIS women from Syria citing security risks.
Defense Minister Linda Reynolds stated that the government “will not jeopardize the lives of any other Australians in order to repatriate Australian nationals.”
“The Australian government’s overriding priority is the protection of Australians and Australia’s national interest, informed by national security advice. Given the sensitive nature of the matters involved, it would not be appropriate to comment further,” a spokesperson for the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, told Guardian Australia on Sunday.