on: Get Children Home from al-Hol
photo credit: The New York Times
How would you feel if I told you children were existing in a hopeless home – with neglect, hunger, sadness, worry, shouting? That they were growing up with no hope of education. No prospects for their future. I assume, if you have any child protection awareness, that you would report the child to social services and look at getting them removed immediately.
Would it change your mind if I told you that these were children of dangerous criminals? Children whose parents had migrated to Syria and Iraq in 2014 to join the “caliphate”. Children that had no choice of whether or not they would be born into ISIS families. Would you still advocate for their removal?
I have recently been learning about the al-Hol camp annex in Syria, where thousands of women and children, with links to ISIS, are being held. I’m just a little bug chomping away at an enormous tree when it comes to learning more about the conflict in Syria. But this issue particularly, has caught my attention.
Here is a super, mega-condensed version of the history of how these women and children came to be in al-Hol. In 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS leader, proclaimed himself to be the head of the caliphate, the Muslim state that included large chunks of Syria and Iraq. Muslim families all over the world migrated to be part of the caliphate. Quite soon after, the US led a campaign to “get rid” of ISIS. Lots of airstrikes. Lots of death. Kurdish fighters joined the US in opposing ISIS with military intervention. All which led to President Trump declaring the defeat of ISIS in December 2018. That is a CRAZY brief synopsis.
Following the “defeat” of ISIS, women and children associated with ISIS were held at a camp in North East Syria, al-Hol. Only in the last month have the inhabitants of the camp been counted and recorded. Thousands of indigenous Syrians are being held here. But there are nearly 14,000 citizens from over 60 countries (who came to Syria to join the caliphate) living in the camp.
More than 7,000 foreign children are living at this camp. Living in a hell hole that is not that their home. Overcrowded. Filthy. Disease ridden. Death infested. The children in the camp don’t have enough water. Or enough food. Or enough healthcare. There is no hope of any type of future, except death, in this camp. And to make matters worse, COVID-19 has infiltrated the camp. Al-Hol is no place for children.
Governments and relevant organisations are calling on countries to repatriate these children. And yet, there are still 7,000 children left in the camp. Why are countries not acting?
Are they afraid that a child might return and carry out terrorist activity? Or perhaps they are hesitant to separate a child from his mother. Or they may project into the future and imagine that the child will one day return to his roots and join ISIS, threatening the safety in their countries. Or they are aware of their “already stretched” social service framework. Or, sickly as it seems, perhaps they just don’t want the bother of taking in a child tainted by ISIS and “disgracing” their country’s reputation.
Whatever the reasons for not repatriating these children, they fall flat when we uphold the protection of children. Children are vulnerable, beautiful creations that should be safeguarded at any cost. Let’s advocate for the helpless children of al-Hol. They need your voice. They need your action.
They need to go home.