Australian ‘lost boy’ Yusuf Zahab is believed to have been found alive in a Syrian jail
A Sydney teenager missing and thought killed in Syria is believed to have been found alive in a jail cell in the city of Hasakah.
A Sydney teenager missing and thought killed in Syria is believed to have been found alive in a jail cell in the city of Hasakah.
A youth believed to be Yusuf Zahab, aged about 19, has been identified by the Syrian Democratic Forces in a prison holding suspected members of Islamic State.
The Australian understands the SDF recently contacted the Australian government to advise that it had located Yusuf, 18 months after he went missing when Islamic State attacked the prison he had been held in since he was 14 years old.
DFAT officials have been provided with a “proof of life’’ video showing a youth believed to be Yusuf talking into a camera. In the video, he identifies himself, his parents, and gives the date as September 15, 2022.
It is not known why the video has emerged now, almost a year after it was apparently taken.
Charities in Syria are seeking to independently verify the youth’s identity.
Yusuf’s family in Australia have been notified and his mother and sister, who are detained in a secure camp in Syria, have also been advised.
Asked if it had received information that Yusuf was alive, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: “DFAT is providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian man currently detained in Syria.
“Owing to our privacy obligations, we are unable to provide further comment.’’
While about a dozen Australian men are detained in jails around Hasakah set up to house Islamic State fighters after the fall of the caliphate, Yusuf was the only Australian boy known to be locked up in a youth annex at one of the prisons. He is not accused of any crime and has been arbitrarily detained for 4½ years.
He was separated from his mother at the fall of Baghouz, Islamic State’s last territory, in March 2019, and detained with hundreds of other boys.
Save the Children Australia CEO Mat Tinkler said it was a miracle Yusuf had survived and he called for the Australian government to immediately bring him home.
“The news that Yusuf has been located alive is an incredible turn of events that will be welcomed with relief by a family who just 12 months ago were wracked by despair believing that Yusuf had died,’’ he said.
“After so many years trapped in northeast Syria, his childhood has been stolen from him.’’
Successive Australian governments have shown no interest in repatriating men to Australia for prosecution, but Yusuf was a child when he was detained, and is accused of no crime.
The Morrison government returned nine Australian children in 2019 and the Albanese government returned four women and 13 children in October last year.
Yusuf was aged about 10 when he was taken to Syria by his family, who had lived in Condell Park in suburban Sydney.
In a statement, his extended Australian family said: “We have received information from several sources that our beloved Yusuf is indeed alive.
“We are simply overwhelmed with joy by this news and are so thankful to now have hope again that we will soon be reunited with him.
“Unfortunately, this news follows 12 excruciating months in which numerous sources had indicated that Yusuf had died, and we are very concerned that he is still isolated from his family and stranded in northeast Syria where he remains unsafe.
“Yusuf was just a young boy when he was taken to Syria. We can only begin to imagine the horrors that he has suffered through since then.’’
The family asked the Australian government to bring home Yusuf and the other Australian children held in camps in Syria.
While the video is 11 months old, if accurate it shows Yusuf survived the 10-day assault in January 2022 when Islamic State attacked the al-Sina’a prison in Hasakah in a bid to break its members out.
His final communications during that time made international news, when he managed to send panicked voice messages from inside the jail on January 26, 2022, using a smuggled phone.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, this will probably be the last time I’m going to call you, give salams to my mum,’’ he said.
A photograph of him, bloodied but apparently not seriously injured, emerged after the first days of the battle, giving hope that he may have survived the initial attack, but he was never seen again and Kurdish officials told his family they no longer had him.
American officials, DFAT, Home Affairs and law enforcement all believed he had likely been killed, as did Human Rights Watch and other charities that tried to locate him. His family held memorial prayers for him at Lakemba mosque last year.
United Nations special rapporteur Fionnuala Ni Aolain investigated and discovered up to 100 “lost boys’’ had vanished within the Kurdish prison system. Yusuf was believed to be among them.
Yusuf is the youngest child of Aminah and Hicham Zahab, who went to Syria in 2015.
His two older brothers, Khaled and the notorious Islamic State recruiter Muhammed Zahab, were killed in airstriles. His father is believed to have died in prison in Syria from illness.
His mother and sister Sumaya, and Sumaya’s young children, are among 29 Australian women and children still detained at al-Roj camp.
More Coverage
Youth mental health a worry for families
Concerned about a young loved one’s mental health? You’re not alone, and starting a conversation about it with them is challenging. Here’s some advice on what do.
Read more
Restaurateur charged over Nazi sign at protest
High-profile restaurateur Alan Yazbek has been revealed as the protester arrested after allegedly holding up a swastika sign at a pro-Palestine rally.
Read more