Bring the Australian ISIS families stuck in Syrian camps home?

These are the Australian women and children trapped in Syrian refugee camps because they are relatives of Islamic State members.

These are the Australian women and children trapped in Syrian refugee camps because they are relatives of Islamic State members.

There are Australian children, relatives of Islamic State members, who have only ever known home as the inside of a wire compound in Syria.

An investigation by The Australian reveals the faces of these encamped women and children, as activists, legal experts, and the Kurdish administration who detained them, push for the Australian government to finally take responsibility.

Who are the Australians in these detention camps?

There are around 42 Australian children and 16 women in the al-Roj camp near the Iraqi border in Syria, which The Australian visited last month. There are more in the al-Hol camp, bringing the number to about 60.

One of them is three-year-old Mariam who was born in the camp and has lived in a tent since. Mariam's mother Shayma Assad is a former Sydney schoolgirl. She was taken to Syria at 15 and married an alleged IS supporter, Mohammad Noor Masri. She has four children, Marian being the youngest.

Little Mariam, 3, was born in the camps in Syria and has never set foot outside her compound. Picture: Ellen Whinnett / The Australian

Another family includes Abdul Rahman, 4 - who was also born in the camp - and his mother Nesrine Zahad, who escaped from the IS when she was pregnant in 2017 before being prisoner-swapped to IS and returned to a camp. His father is jailed Islamic State fighter Ahmed Merhi. 

Four other children have been born in these camps.

What happens to them when they get home?

All the women at these camps have been detained without charge for more than three years.

Of the 16 women waiting to be brought home, less than 10 would be charged with terrorism offenses, The Australian reported. And they would likely be charged with "entering a proscribed area", that is the Syrian city of Raqqa.

Nesrine Zahab, wife of notorious Islamic State terrorist Ahmed Merhi.

The political decision

Countries like Germany, the Netherlands, the US, and Finland are repatriating, or sending home, their citizens. France repatriated 16 women and 35 children just last month. Some are hoping the new Albanese Government will do the same.

The Coalition government refused to bring the families home following the fall of IS three years ago. They said it was too dangerous for Australian officials to go to Syria. Labor is now considering whether they might repatriate them in small groups.

Although a political decision, law enforcement would have to surveil the groups for years when they returned to Australia.

Australian children Mariam, 3, and Abdul Rahman, 4, in al-Roj camp in northeastern Syria. Picture: Ellen Whinnett / The Australian

Guilty by association

UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, Fionnuala Ni Aolain, said these women and children are part of "a category which has no legal basis in international law – association".

"These women and their children … by virtue of their presumed or actual affiliation with a man or a family member who is deemed to be a member of a terrorist group, are put into this category that ... strips them of all of their legal rights," she said.

She added the conditions in the al-Hol and al-Roj camps met the legal threshold for torture.