After seven years of heartache, a home awaits for Dabboussy children

One hopeful day in 2020, Kamalle Dabboussy bought a big, rundown house and started to renovate it to make sure he had rooms ready for the day his daughter Mariam and her three kids returned from Syria.

Mariam Dabboussy’s children Aisha (far right), 9, with her sister, 4, and brother, 6. Picture: Ellen Whinnett

One hopeful day in 2020, Kamalle Dabboussy bought a big, rundown house and started to renovate it.

The single father from northwest Sydney wanted to make sure he had rooms ready for the day his daughter Mariam and her three kids returned from Syria.

After three years of renovations and seven years of heartache, Mr Dabboussy believes the time might be coming when he will be reunited with the daughter he lost to Islamic State territory back on 2015.

He is one of dozens of family members, mainly in Sydney and Melbourne, hoping and praying the government will proceed with a planned repatriation of 16 women and 42 children who have been detained in camps in northeastern Syria for the past 3½ years.

“I wanted to get a house that was big enough for everybody,’’ he told The Australian. “A garden for the children to be able to play.’’

Kamalle Mr Dabboussy has bought a family home and spent years renovating it ready for his daughter and grandchildren to come home. Picture: Jane Dempster

Mr Dabboussy, chief executive of the Western Sydney Migrant Resource Centre, found himself the spokesman for families that had lost children and grandchildren to Islamic State, and has taken a lead role negotiating with government and aid agencies to try to help the women and their children return home.

He said he fell into the role after his daughter Mariam, now 33, took on a similar role in the camps, discussing developments with the other women detained there. “I found myself a spokesman partly because of Mariam. She spoke to the others in the camps. The women in the camps brought the families in Australia together.’’

Mr Dabboussy has heard nothing official from the government that the women would be repatriated, but is daring to dream he and the other Australian families will get their daughters and grandchildren back.

Mariam, a migrant resource worker, left Sydney with her husband, Khaled Zahab, and baby daughter Aisha in 2015 and was taken into Syria. She had a second child to Zahab, who was killed in an airstrike. Mariam was forced to marry again to a man who died when her third baby was a week old. She escaped from Islamic State territory at the fall of Baghouz in March 2019, and has been detained since with her children, now aged 8, 6 and 4.

To keep his hopes up during the long period when he was separated from his daughter, Mr Dabboussy wrote a book, and bought the large house.

“My goal and dream was to have a family home … big enough for Sunday dinners and family barbecues,’’ he said.

“Ultimately, I want Mariam to be independent but I wanted to make sure there was room for everyone so they can stay.’’

Mr Dabboussy with his daughter Mariam Dabboussy in Australia.

The government is preparing to repatriate the Australian women and their children in about three groups, with the most vulnerable to be prioritised.

Their family members, many of whom have co-operated with the Australian Federal Police and ASIO, are desperate that no one be left behind.

“I get a sense it’s closer than ever,’’ Mr Dabboussy said of the planned repatriation. “I’m just so happy the government, according to reports, is moving before another Australian child succumbs.’’

He was referring to the apparent death of Sydney boy Yusuf Zahab, who is believed to have died in a Syrian prison. He was locked up at 14 and was 17 when he is believed to have died earlier this year.

“All the families are hopeful, there’s a lot of activity and a lot of questions,’’ Mr Dabboussy said of the planned repatriation.

“The women are certainly aware of it in the camps.’’