Here’s the good news: children who had been trapped in squalid detention camps in northeast Syria for years are now thriving back in their home countries.
It says something wonderful about the resilience of the human spirit generally, and of children’s ability to adapt specifically, that, despite years of suffering in life-threatening conditions, the children of ISIS suspects and their families are reintegrating into society.
A new report looks at the stories of some 100 kids saved from soul-destroying stagnation in Syrian camps and brought home in recent years to France, Germany, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan.
They’ve gone from situations where they had almost nothing – insufficient water, no fresh food, no health care, and little or no access to education – to normal lives, playing football, skating, cycling, and dancing. Our research and an accompanying survey show they are adjusting positively, making new friends, and performing well in school.
Their stories are inspirational, but their success needs to inspire governments to act further.
Because here’s the bad news: some 56,000 people, nearly all women and children, are still detained in al-Hol and Roj, two locked camps in northeast Syria. These are primarily the wives and kids of male ISIS suspects.
More than 18,000 are from Syria, approximately 28,000 from neighboring Iraq, and more than 10,000 are from about 60 other countries.
Most were detained in 2019, when regional fighters backed by a US-led military coalition toppled the last remnant of the self-declared ISIS “caliphate” in northeast Syria.
Their detention is clearly unlawful. None of them have been brought before a court to determine the necessity or legality of their detention.
Most importantly, more than 60 percent of them are children – children who, we now know, could be thriving back home instead of languishing in a detention camp.