Australian PM lays aside repatriating ISIS families from NE Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese laid aside any plans to repatriate about 40 Australian women and children of the families of the Islamic State (ISIS) militants from Northeast Syria, an Australian paper said on Saturday.
The Saturday Paper, an Australian weekly newspaper, published an exclusive article saying that the prime minister “has shelved indefinitely plans to repatriate about 40 Australian women and children currently stranded in detention camps managed by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.”
The newspaper cited two senior government sources as saying that the prime minister had made it “very clear” that unless there was a dramatic deterioration in the security situation in and around the camps, the issue “would not be revisited before the election.”
Commenting on the issue, Save the Children Australia chief executive Mat Tinkler said, “Not bringing these women and children who are Australian citizens home is nothing other than a complete failure of political will.”
About 40 women and children of Australian nationality are in the Roj camp in Hasakah Governorate, northeast Syria.
Roj camp holds about 727 families, numbering 2,310 individuals including 1,582 children. All of which are families of ISIS militants who were either killed in the battles with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) or surrendered and are now in detention centers under the control of the SDF.
ISIS lost its final stronghold in Syria in March 2019. The SDF, with the support of the U.S.-led Global Coalition defeated the group after fierce battles in the town of Baghouz in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria, bringing an end to ISIS’ self-proclaimed caliphate.
After Baghouz, thousands of ISIS fighters were transferred to prisons and detention centers, while their families were transferred to Hawl and Roj camps in areas run by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
The AANES continues to call on the international community to support establishing rehabilitation centers and help in tackling the security situation in the facilities were ISIS foreign nationals are held.
The issue of ISIS militants in Northeast Syria raises significant questions about their future and the international community’s response. Convicting and trying these individuals has become an urgent concern, yet the efforts to conduct trials have encountered numerous obstacles and challenges.