An Australian woman has given birth to a baby boy in the al-Hawl camp in Syria, prompting revived calls for Australia to rescue 67 nationals still held in the camp.

Rayan Hamdoush, 24, from western Sydney, was pregnant when she entered al-Hawl. She gave birth to the boy on 30 November. The boy’s father, Mustapha Hajj Obeid, also from Sydney, is missing.

The boy is reportedly in good health in the sprawling, squalid camp for the captured wives and children of Islamic State fighters, in the now-contested north-east of Syria.

Up to 70,000 women and children are held in al-Hawl, where the Syrian winter has brought freezing temperatures, snow, flooding of the tents where families live, and widespread illness.

The birth of the boy brings the number of Australians in the camp to 67, 47 of whom are children under five. As the child of an Australian citizen, the boy is entitled to citizenship, but must apply for it.

The UK, US, Denmark and Germany have been repatriating their citizens from al-Hawl and other camps in north-east Syria over recent weeks. But Australia has refused to consider repatriating citizens, saying it would not risk Australian lives to rescue those held there.

The home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, has said some of the Australian women in the al-Hawl camp are “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.”

Sources inside the camps say Kurdish authorities, who still control the area, have established a safe route across the Iraqi border for foreign citizens, but political will from countries such as Australia is lacking.

A senior US counter-terrorism official, Nathan Sales, said the US had offered Australia and other US allies assistance to take back their citizens.

“Leaving these folks at camps in the desert ... is not going to solve the problem,” he told the ABC. “Our offer to other countries that are interested in taking their citizens back is we are prepared to help and we hope you’ll accept that offer.”

Mat Tinkler, the director of policy and international programs for Save the Children, which is working in al-Hawl, said the organisation held serious concerns for the infant’s welfare.

This baby has the odds stacked against him from the very first day of his life Mat Tinkler

“It’s hard to imagine a worse place for a child to be born than inside these camps. The arrival of another brutal Syrian winter brings the added threat of snow storms, sleet and icy conditions.

“In the past year alone, 400 children have died, either in these camps, or on their way to them as they try to escape the conflict.

“This baby has the odds stacked against him from the very first day of his life. He is one of thousands of children, forced to live without running water, proper healthcare facilities and where food supply is highly uncertain.”

The 20 Australian women and their children in al-Hawl previously lived in a part of the camp they called “Australia Street”. But they were forced to move recently because their tents kept flooding in heavy winter rains.

Tinkler said while it was understood the boy was in reasonable health, he remained at risk while he was forced to stay within the camp.

“A number of these children are already suffering pneumonia and other treatable illnesses, a situation which will only be exacerbated with the onset of winter.

“These children are innocent and should not be made to suffer for the actions of their parents. We are calling on the Australian government to repatriate these children, and their mothers, as soon as possible.”

Tinkler said the women and children held in al-Hawl could be brought to safety without risking Australian lives, but that the “window” to move people safely may be closing.

Following the US withdrawal from northern Syria in October, Turkish forces crossed the border into Syria to establish a “safe zone”. Turkey agreed to a ceasefire with the Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Forces, after talks with the US and Russia (which backs the Assad regime). But Human Rights Watch argues the zone remains unsafe, with allegations of war crimes being committed by Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups against the Kurdish civilian population.

Observers say Kurdish control of the region is tenuous, and is expected to be challenged by larger military forces in coming months: Russian-backed Syrian regime forces to the south and Turkish forces from the north.

Turkey this week deported a suspected Australia Isis fighter, Agim Ajazi, who was flown to South Australia where he faced court. The 30-year-old is expected to face extradition to his home state of Queensland, where he will face charges of being an Islamist foreign fighter.



