Australian women detained in north-eastern Syria over ties to Islamic State fighters say they would accept separating from their children so the kids could come home to Australia.
Eleven women held in the Kurdish-controlled al-Roj camp told The Guardian on Monday that they would prefer the Australian government to repatriate their children at any cost, even if that meant the children would be placed with relatives back in Australia while the mothers remained in the camp.
The women described the emotional and psychological toll on the 23 children, some as young as six, whose distress had deepened as years of detention wore on.
“I have continually asked for my children to be saved from this camp and from this constant fear,” said Zahra Ahmad, a Melbourne mother with three children who has been in Syrian detention camps since at least 2019. “They experience night terrors. Omar, my second-eldest son, bites his fingers until the tips bleed and he doesn’t sleep.”
Others in the group, however, said they would feel uneasy about their children being taken away and did not want to be separated from them.
Ahmad described what she called “regressive behaviour” in her children, noting signs such as bed-wetting by her 12-year-old son—behaviour psychologists link to emotional trauma in adolescents.
“They can’t cope any more and they can’t understand why they’re kept in this situation,” she said. “Please save the children; the children are innocent in all of this and they need to feel safe and grow up in a safe and healthy environment. Our children need to heal and put this nightmare behind them.”
The families’ desperation deepened after a failed repatriation attempt last week, when the 11 women and 23 children were briefly released from the camp by Kurdish authorities before being returned.
They had attempted to travel toward Damascus with the aim of boarding flights to Australia, but the convoy was halted after the Syrian government intervened, with officials saying relatives had not coordinated properly with Damascus.
The Australian government has opposed repatriating the women and children and has said it will not assist their attempted re-entry to Syria. The group comprises wives and children of suspected IS fighters who have been detained since at least 2019 following IS’s territorial defeat.
Rights groups have warned that Australia’s refusal to repatriate these nationals violates their rights and that conditions at the squalid al-Roj encampment are unsuitable for living, with tents offering little shelter from extreme weather and some women attempting to indoctrinate children with extremist ideologies.
For many children, the failed return to Australia was confusing and painful. Eleven-year-old Baidaa, who broke into tears, said she didn’t understand why they were brought back to the camp and voiced a wish to live in houses rather than tents, in a normal life.
The urgency around repatriation has grown since Damascus regained control of al-Hawl camp last month, a facility that housed about 25,000 IS-linked families. Al-Hawl’s near-total emptying and the disappearance of roughly 6,000 foreign women and children to unknown locations has raised fears of trafficking and recruitment risks for vulnerable children.
Al-Roj’s future remains uncertain, with questions about whether Damascus might assume control. A Kurdish official suggested the camp could be closed, though al-Roj’s security chief, Çavre Afrin, said she was unaware of such plans.
Parents in al-Roj worry that leaving the camp to smugglers or traffickers could endanger their children’s safety and future.
Australian rights groups have pressed for repatriation, while the opposition party calls for tighter restrictions to prevent families from facilitating relatives’ return.
Save the Children, which has campaigned for years to bring Australians home from Syrian camps, emphasized that in most cases children benefit most from staying with a parent. Its chief executive, Mat Tinkler, argued that the child’s best interests are served by returning families together and that security services have consistently advised that repatriation is safer and more manageable when handled by the Australian government.
Human Rights Watch has documented nightly raids in al-Roj by Kurdish authorities, including beatings, property destruction, threats, theft, and the separation of boys from their mothers. The organisation’s deputy Middle East director, Adam Coogle, warned that such chaos places women and children at heightened risk of trafficking, exploitation, and recruitment by armed groups and urged that residents receive support to return, reintegrate, and rebuild their lives if they have not committed crimes.
What this means for the children—and for Australia’s policy—remains hotly debated. Should Australia bring families home to ensure safety and proper rehabilitation, or should it continue restricting repatriation amid security concerns and political resistance? What’s your view on the best path forward for these families and the children who have known only their mothers in these camps? Would you support repatriation in full, or prefer stricter conditions and monitoring? These questions invite your thoughts in the comments.
