CAMP ROGHI, Syria (AP) — Syrian authorities deported a group of Australian women and children on Monday after they left a camp in Syria housing people with suspected ties to Islamic State militants in an attempt to return to their home country.
It’s unclear if or when they will be able to complete their journey.
The 34 women and children from 11 families were scheduled to travel from Camp Roy to the Syrian capital Damascus and then to Australia. Camp officials said relatives of the returnees have been coordinating with Syrian authorities and traveling from Australia to accompany them.
About an hour after leaving the remote camp near the Iraqi border, Damascus officials contacted the families and told them that the procedures to leave had not been completed and that they would not be able to travel, camp manager Rashid Omar said. The family then returned to the camp.
Camp director Hakmiyeh Ibrahim said the planned repatriation was being organized by the returnees’ families and not directly by Australian authorities.
Australian officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Roj camp houses about 2,200 people from about 50 countries, mostly women and children, who are believed to have links to the extremist group. Most of those in the camp are not technically prisoners and have not been charged with crimes, but in practice they are being held in high-security camps controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
In 2015, Camp Roy’s most famous resident, Shamima Begum, was 15 when she fled London with two other girls to marry an Islamic State fighter in Syria. Begum was married to a Dutch man who fought for Islamic State and had three children, all of whom died. She recently lost an appeal against the British government’s decision to revoke her British citizenship.
The fate of Camp Roy and the similar but larger Al Hol camp has been a matter of debate for years. Human rights groups say living conditions in the camps are poor and violence is widespread, but many countries have been reluctant to take back citizens detained there.
If Monday’s repatriation is completed, it would be the first this year. Camp director Ibrahim said 16 families were repatriated last year, including German, British and French nationals. In 2022, three Australian families were deported.
Government forces took control of al-Hol camp last month in fighting with the SDF, which led to their seizure of much of northeastern Syria previously controlled by Kurdish forces.
The U.N. refugee agency said on Sunday that a large number of residents of the al-Hol refugee camp have left and the Syrian government plans to resettle those who remain.
Separately, thousands of alleged Islamic State militants held in detention centers in northeastern Syria have been transferred by U.S. troops to Iraq to face trial.
