Syria: Children pay price in refugee camps
Five years have passed since the defeat of ISIS but over 6,000 foreign children of ISIS remain trapped in Syrian refugee camps, according to the New Arab and agencies, on March 23rd.
Children under 12 years old make up over 70% of the grim Al-Hol and Roj camps. And while ministers and the international community debate their repatriation, these children are forced to wait in a state of uncertainty.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) oversee the camps, infamous for overcrowding and violence, with disease rife in the run-down conditions. Yet according to charity Save the Children, repatriation efforts have slowed down by 50% compared to the same time the previous year.
Kyrgyzstan is amongst the sole country repatriating its citizens with 27 women and 72 children returning to their country in 2024.
The slowing down of repatriation has worried Save the Children, who critiqued Sweden’s recent decision to stop further child repatriations, noting it was a “step in the wrong direction”. The charity also added that the “appalling decision would condemn children to poor conditions and violence”.
The SDF currently controls over 10,000 former ISIS fighters, spread out in over 20 detention centres in northeast Syria. Although the Kurdish-led forces defeated ISIS five years ago, Islamic State continues to have a presence in Idlib province, northwestern Syria. The SDF have also warned about the radicalisation of the children left in these camps. The impoverished conditions the children are forced to live in – with no hopes of repatriation – can only exacerbate the conditions ripe for birthing further violence.
Read: Daesh “still poses a great danger” says US-backed group.
It’s also not just foreign children – Syrian and Iraqi children left behind also number in the thousands, according to Save the Children.
Such conditions have prompted Rasha Muhrez, Save the Children’s Syria country director, to urge, “We need more safe repatriations – not less. For five years, children have been trapped in these awful camps, abandoned by their governments. They deserve safety, education, and care. Fewer repatriations shows that governments are turning their backs on these children. Governments ignore their duty, leaving children stuck in misery,”.
But the children and women left behind by ISIS represent a security conundrum for governments reluctant to take them back.
This was seen in the infamous case of Shamima Begum, a former runaway ISIS bride, who was sensationalised in the British press after her UK passport was revoked. Begum’s recent appeal to gain her citizenship back was recently rejected.
Charity Reprieve has critiqued the UK legal system for failing to repatriate Begum, saying “Stripping citizenship in bulk and abandoning British families in desert prisons is a terrible, unsustainable policy designed to score cheap political points”.
Read: ISIS bride loses UK citizenship appeal case
Yet with ISIS back on the West’s radar again following their recent terrorist attack on a Moscow concert hall that left over 100 people dead, it seems increasingly unlikely that these forgotten children will be prioritised. Until then, they are forced to pay the price of adults.
The New Arab/Agencies
