Seriously ill child among two more Australians found in the camp

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Australians trapped in a camp for families of Islamic State fighters in north-eastern Syria have pleaded with the Australian government to rescue them as warring Syrian and Turkish forces close in.

And two more Australian citizens, a mother and a seriously ill child reportedly suffering shrapnel wounds, have been discovered in al-Hawl camp. It was previously understood there were 66 Australians – 20 women and 44 children – held in the camp of more than 70,000 family members of Isis fighters.

Kamalle Dabboussy, whose daughter Mariam and three grandchildren are trapped inside al-Hawl, said the Australian cohort in the camp had located the mother and daughter, who had previously been too fearful to step outside to make contact with others.

“We’re trying to find out more information about the two that have just appeared,” Dabboussy said.

What is the situation in north-eastern Syria? Read more

“They are very, very frightened. It appears the child is quite ill, has been injured with shrapnel wounds. The mother appears to have been targeted by the radicalised women in the camps before. She’s been beaten with metal poles. She has injuries to her body. But beyond that, I really have no further information.”

Another mother and child previously counted among the Australian cohort in the camp have reportedly been taken to a local hospital because the child is dangerously unwell. The nature of the child’s illness, and the hospital they have gone to, is unknown.

Dabboussy has said his daughter Mariam had been coerced into travelling to Syria by her Isis fighter brother-in-law, who has since been killed. Two of her three children were born in Syria.

Mariam Dabboussy sent a message to her father in recent days. “Please don’t let us fall into the hands of the [Syrian] regime,” she said.

“We’re asking just as humans, just as regretful people. If this happens that’s it for us. That’s it for my kids.”

A second Australian woman, Zara Ahmed, said security in the camp was continuing to deteriorate, with a woman’s mutilated body found in the toilets.

“I’m so scared, I don’t know how much longer I can do this for,” she said.

Kamalle Dabboussy visited Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday to ask federal politicians to intervene to rescue the stranded Australians. He said Australia could still safely liberate its citizens from the war zone.

“It’s important to remember that the majority of the people we’re talking about are children … A window is open at the moment … [but] time is shortening. The camp is still under Kurdish control. The border crossing is still open. Action can still be taken, but I think that’s a situation of days rather than weeks.”

Mat Tinkler, director of policy and international programs with Save the Children Australia, said the Australian families of those trapped in the camps had been “upfront” with the government that they were prepared to work with law enforcement, intelligence and security agencies over their relatives’ association with Isis if they were repatriated to Australia.

“In our view, it’s much better for the Australian justice system to prosecute any case that exists and secure the safety and appropriate treatment of these people, than allowing them to stay in a place like war-torn north-east Syria.”

Tinkler said the Kurdish administration of the region remained willing to transfer foreign nationals from north-east Syria to border towns such as Qamishli in Iraq.

The Australian government has consistently opposed any operation to rescue Australians trapped by the worsening conflict, saying it would not jeopardise further Australian lives in any rescue mission.



The home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, has said some of the Australians in the camp were “hardcore” and “have the potential and capacity to come back here and cause a mass casualty event”.

“So I don’t think it should come as a surprise when we say we’re not going to send our soldiers to rescue people of this nature.”

Following the announcement last week by the US president, Donald Trump, that American troops would abandon the region, Turkey launched a long-threatened military offensive in the area, saying it is targeting terrorist cells posing a threat to Turkey from over the Syrian border.

But the region’s Kurdish population, who have long controlled the Rojava autonomous region of north-east Syria, say the operation is aimed at pushing Kurds out entirely, part of Turkey’s ambition to prevent a Kurdish state from ever coming into being.

In response to Turkey’s offensive, Russian-backed Syrian forces have pushed deep into Kurdish-held territory from the south, squeezing civilian populations between two advancing armies.

Russian shadow falls over Syria as Kurds open door for Assad Read more

The continued demand for Australians caught in the fighting to be rescued comes as Trump announced he would soon impose economic sanctions on Turkey, as a measure to halt its “destabilising actions in north-east Syria”.

The US measures are undermined by the widespread belief that the sudden withdrawal of American troops from the area gave, in effect, a green light to the Turkish offensive.

Trump’s decision to withdraw troops has been decried in the US, and around the world, as a betrayal of America’s Kurdish allies, who have fought alongside the US since 2014.

Australia is also pressuring Turkey over its military action, with the foreign minister, Marise Payne, speaking with her Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, and warning that Isis could be reinvigorated by the chaos created by the Turkish invasion.

At least 750 people with suspected links to Islamic State have reportedly fled al-Hawl camp.

Payne told the Senate: “Daesh [Isis] is more than capable of small bursts of, or a large burst of, energy and activity and continuing terrorist and violent extremist activity, not just in the Middle East but allied with other extremist organisations in the region and more broadly.”



