By Samah Abdul Fattah | 2024-06-08

Hastening the repatriation of "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) family members living in Syrian camps is critically important, especially as children age and are transferred to adult facilities, social workers and lawyers said.

The Kurdish controlled al-Hasakeh province camps of Roj and al-Hol have housed relatives of ISIS fighters since the group's defeat, providing a temporary solution to a complex problem.

Repatriation of the family members of ISIS foreign fighters is seen as part of the solution -- a need that grows more urgent as children age.

"Every now and then, women and children in both the Roj camp and al-Hol camp are handed over to representatives of their countries to repatriate them," Roj camp social worker Sumaya al-Issa told Al-Fassel.

Humanitarian and civil society organizations chaperone the process to help governments complete the process as quickly as possible, she said.

A British woman and her three children were repatriated on May 24.

On May 7, the United States repatriated a group of 11 citizens and a nine-year-old non-US sibling. It also facilitated the repatriation of six Canadians, four Dutch and one Finnish citizen, most of whom were children.

"What drives countries to accelerate the handover operations ... is that some children have passed the age of childhood and preparations are made to transfer them from the camps to jihadist detention centers," she said.

"This will make their release more difficult, if not impossible."

Al-Hol is the largest camp housing families of ISIS members and supporters, as well as displaced people from Iraq and Syria. Roj is less crowded and houses mostly foreign women and their children, al-Issa explained.

ISIS members and supporters are held at various detention centers in the area.

Difficulty repatriating children

The repatriation of non-Syrian ISIS families "is taking place slowly, not only because some countries are blocking this process, but also because of the required procedures," Syrian lawyer Bashir al-Bassam told Al-Fassel.

These include verifying personal data in the country of birth, in addition to verifying the security file, which includes the children's parents if they are part of the release process, he said.

"This is a very complex procedure, but the difficulty lies in [repatriating] the children, especially since most of them, if not all of them, were born in Syria or Iraq when [ISIS] was in control," he said.

As a consequence, "there are no identification papers for these children."

"Prolonging the detention period has disastrous consequences for children as they are growing up in a camp that is isolated from the world," he added.