A group of Australian women detained at a Syrian camp with their families over ties to Islamic State have offered an ultimatum to the Albanese Government amid fierce debate over whether they should be repatriated.
The 11 women and 23 children have lived at the Kurdish-controlled al-Roj camp near Damascus, in northeast Syria, since the territorial defeat of the Islamic caliphate in 2019.
Last Monday, the group attempted to return to Australia, only to be sent back to the camp. Though Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that “Australian citizens have rights”, his government has insisted it will not assist the cohort.
“I’ve said this before, but my mum had a saying, ‘If you make your bed, you lie in it’,” Mr Albanese said in an interview with Karl Stefanovic on Tuesday.
“And as far as I’m concerned, I have nothing but contempt for these people.”
Some of the women have now said they want the federal government to repatriate their children, some of whom are just six years-old, at any cost – even if it means being separated from them.
In an interview with The Guardian, Melbourne mother-of-three Zahra Ahmad said she has “continuously asked for my children to be saved from this camp and from this continuous fear”.
“They experience night terrors. Omar, my second-eldest son, bites his fingers till the tips bleed and he doesn’t sleep,” Ms Ahmad said.
“They can’t cope any more and they can’t understand why they’re kept in this situation.
“Please save the children; the children are innocent in all of his 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.”
One of the children at al-Roj, 11-year-old Baidaa, told The Guardian through tears that she didn’t understand why she had been returned to the camp last week.
“Why do I have to be in here? I don’t want to live in a tent, I don’t want to be in a camp, I don’t want to be in a prison,” she said.
“I just want to be free and live in houses and live a normal life, not like here.”
The conditions of camps in northeast Syria, including al-Roj, have been assessed by human rights organisations as inhumane and degrading, with the United Nations having called on all nations to repatriate their citizens to ensure the right to a fair judicial process.
In a statement on Monday, Save the Children Australia chief executive Mat Tinkler said the “innocent” children “should not be held responsible for their parents’ actions.”
The prospect of the women relinquishing their children so that they could be safe here would not be in their best interest, Mr Tinkler went on to tell The Guardian.
“For this group of children, they have known only their mums in these camps for seven years: imagine that person, the only source of support and comfort and nurturing, being taken away from them,” he said.
“That will have a traumatic and lifelong impact.”
Both Mr Albanese and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor have acknowledged that, as the latter said, it is “tragic that children are involved”. Yet both men have maintained Australia would not – and should not – help the families.
“I have contempt for their parents who have put these children in that situation,” the Prime Minister told ABC radio when pressed about the stranded children, who had no say over their parents travelling to join the Islamic caliphate.
“We have a firm position, which is that the mothers in this case who made this decision to travel overseas against Australia’s national interest are the responsible ones who’ve put their children in this position … We will do nothing to assist these people coming back to Australia.”
Krystle Rosse-Emile – whose sister married an IS fighter and has been stuck in the camp with her two children for years – urged Australian leaders to be more sympathetic.
“Especially for the children. I think (the government) should have a long, hard look at themselves and think, what are they doing?” Ms Rosse-Emile told the ABC on Wednesday.
“The kids deserve to have a life, a normal life … Give them a chance. You give criminals a chance. If they haven’t done anything, give them a chance to come back.”
Sydney GP and respected Muslim leader Dr Jamal Rifi is organising a private repatriation mission, confirming on Monday night he is in the Middle East to try and get the women and children out of the camps and to Australia.
“The children shouldn’t suffer from the sins of fathers or mothers, and Australian children shouldn’t live in such an environment for any length of time,” Dr Rifi told The Age.
“And they’ve been there seven years.”
