Aussie kids trapped in camps as Turkish attack looms

Five newborns among Australian kin of ­ISIS fighters who could be at risk from Turkey’s incursion.

Mariam Dabboussy with her husband Kaled Zahab and their child. Picture: ABC

Five newborns and a 16-year-old with a mild intellectual disability who was feared dead until last month are among the Australian family members of ­Islamic State fighters whose lives could be at risk because of a planned incursion by Turkey into northern Syria.

Among the newborns is the son of Melbourne woman Kirsty Rosse-Emile. She arrived at the notorious al-Hawl camp with her two-year-old daughter just before Kurdish-led forces defeated Islamic State in the village of Baghouz in March, which marked the end of the so-called caliphate.

At least four other Australian women have also given birth at the camp in the past six months, and one of the newborns has already contracted bronchial pneumonia, according to one family member.

All are inside camps administered by Kurdish-led forces that Turkey wants to push away from its border. The families of the Australian women and children in the camps have called for them to be repatriated from northern Syria in the coming days.

The calls have been backed by charities, the Greens and Labor — whose home affairs spokeswoman, Kristina Keneally, said it needed to happen urgently, before any Turkish invasion took place.

Kamalle Dabboussy with his daughter and her children in Syria. Picture: ABC

“The opportunity, the window if you will, to safely extract the children and indeed those people who are adults is coming to a close,” Senator Keneally said.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the government would not rush to evacuate them.

“We will not put Australian ­officials, forces or our public in danger, so any repatriation will occur only if safe to do so,” she said.

This came after it emerged that one of the women, Zehra Duman, from Melbourne, was stripped of her Australian citizenship. She has been held in a camp with her two children since February.

Kamalle Dabboussy, whose daughter Mariam is in a camp with her three children, said their lives could be put at increased risk if Turkey invaded and began fighting Kurdish forces — not least of all because of the health risks within the camp.

“They are at risk of finding themselves in the middle of a war zone,” Mr Dabboussy said. “They’re at risk of possible attacks by ISIS sleeper cells external to the camp, and the power vacuum that the current actions may provide.

“They’re at risk by the radicalised women inside the camp — the Australians have been classed as ‘apostates’ and non-believers, therefore their killing is allowed according to their ideology.”

Mr Dabboussy with Save the Children’s Mat Tinkler Picture: David Geraghty

Ms Rosse-Emile’s father criticised the government’s statements that no Australian people should be put in harm’s way to extricate citizens from the camps.

“I’m asking the Prime Minister, who are the people in the camps? Are they Australians or are they stateless people?” he said.

Mr Dabboussy also detailed the situation of a boy with a “mild intellectual disability” who was just 11 when he was taken into the conflict zone by his family. He was separated from his mother earlier this year and put inside a detention centre for adults, due to his age.

He said the now 16-year-old’s father was in a different detention centre while his mother was in a camp for women and children.