<\/p>\n
Conditions in the north-eastern Syrian camp where 34 Australians have been forcibly returned are deteriorating dramatically, with reports of near-nightly raids, and increasingly violent beatings, amid worsening uncertainty over their futures.<\/p>\n
The 11 women and 23 Australian children forced back to Roj camp on Monday <\/a>returned to find their tents \u2013 formerly huddled collectively in a row known as Australia Street \u2013 demolished and their possessions seized.<\/p>\n Kurdish officials have reportedly refused to return their tents, so the group has been scattered across the shrinking, unstable camp, billeted with other families.<\/p>\n There are no established lines of communications with the group, and their immediate future \u2013 whether another attempt will be made to reach Australia \u2013 is increasingly unclear.<\/p>\n The group \u2013 the last Australians left in the camp after previous government-run repatriations \u2013 are the wives, widows and children of slain or jailed Islamic State fighters.<\/p>\n They have been given Australian passports and permission to leave Roj camp.<\/p>\n But their efforts to reach Damascus, and from there board flights to Australia, were thwarted when Syrian government officials stopped their convoy, refusing them permission to cross into government-controlled territory. They were forced back to Roj, in Syria\u2019s far north-east, near to the Turkish and Iraqi borders.<\/p>\n Sources on the ground in Syria say the camp is increasingly unstable and violent. It is expected to be transferred from Kurdish control into the hands of the Syrian government soon.<\/p>\n There are fears, too, for renewed violence amid the uncertainty of a fragile ceasefire<\/a> between the Syrian government and the Kurdish forces, still in control of Roj camp for now, but who have ceded most of their territory.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s getting more dangerous, more uncertain,\u201d a Syrian source said.<\/p>\n \u201cOther countries are undertaking these repatriations. Australia has completely abdicated its responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n One mother said she had been actively avoiding the news, as any mention of the fate of the Australians who remained stranded in Syria was unbearable.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been almost seven years, we just want her home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In Australia, human rights groups have urged Australia\u2019s politicians to prioritise the rights of the Australian children to be repatriated to safety.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/sub><\/a><\/p>\n The government has been resolute that it is not assisting with the Australians\u2019 repatriation, as it had previously with other Australians detained in the same camp.<\/p>\n The prime minister said he was inimical to their return.<\/p>\n \u201cI have nothing but contempt<\/a> for these people,\u201d Anthony Albanese told ABC radio.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government is providing no support for the repatriation of these people or any support whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n He had earlier said \u201cyou make your bed, you lie in it<\/a>\u201d. When it was pointed out most of the group were children, and that some had been born in the camps, he said: \u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate that children are caught up in this, that\u2019s not their decision, but it\u2019s the decision of their parents or their mother.\u201d<\/p>\n The chief executive of Save the Children Australia, which has advocated on behalf of the group over years, said all political parties should dial down the political rhetoric and put the wellbeing of vulnerable Australian children first.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a group of innocent Australian children who deserve safety and protection, as every child does. That has largely been lost from the debate in recent days,\u201d Mat Tinkler said.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery parent knows that babies and toddlers don\u2019t make beds. The reality is that some of these children were born in the displacement camps, and many were toddlers when they were first taken there.<\/p>\n \u201cThese children would be sleeping in warm, comfortable beds at home in Australia by now if the government had repatriated them when it should have. They have lost years of their childhoods languishing in tents, in conditions that would shock most Australians.\u201d<\/p>\n Tinkler said the government had always had the power to repatriate its citizens, as the Morrison and Albanese governments had done in 2019 and 2022, but that now, \u201cpolitics is getting in the way of real solutions for these children\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cChildren are not responsible for the actions of their parents, and their rights must not be swept aside because it is politically convenient to do so.<\/p>\n \u201cLeaving them in limbo will not make the Australian community any safer. In fact, national security experts say it may present a greater long-term risk.\u201d<\/p>\n Human Rights Watch said that Roj camp, while it remains in the hands of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, is expected to be handed over to the Syrian government soon.<\/p>\n \u201cConditions there seem to have deteriorated in the last weeks, with women we are in touch with reporting near nightly raids and beatings of a scale and severity not previously felt.\u201d<\/p>\n The Australia director of Human Rights Watch, Daniela Gavshon, said the organisation had repeatedly pressed the Australian and other governments to repatriate their citizens who had been unlawfully and indefinitely detained in north-east Syria for almost seven years.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conditions in the camps are dire. The situation is untenable and the government needs to find a solution. These Australians should be brought back to Australia for rehabilitation, reintegration, and prosecution of adults where warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n Gavshon said Australia was well equipped to reintegrate the women and children from the camps, with services to support those who had experienced displacement, violence, family separation and interrupted schooling.<\/p>\n \u201cFor years now, experts have been saying, the greatest danger for Australia is not accepting the return of children from the camps in north-east Syria. It\u2019s leaving them there.\u201d<\/p>\n The Australian government has said it will seek to impose a temporary exclusion order<\/a> on one of the women understood to be seeking to return to Australia.<\/p>\n The Australian government undertook two successful repatriation missions \u2013 of eight orphaned children in 2019, and of four women and 13 children in 2022 \u2013 but said consistently it had no plan to repatriate the final group. One returned woman was charged with entering a proscribed area, Raqqah province. Mariam Raad pleaded guilty and was discharged conditionally in a NSW court.<\/p>\n Last October, two women and four children escaped nearby al-Hawl detention camp<\/a>, making their way across Syria to Lebanon, where they were given passports at the Australian embassy. They returned to Australia on a commercial flight.<\/p>\n In 2024, Clare O\u2019Neil, then home affairs minister, was preparing to bring a plan to repatriate the remaining Australians to cabinet for approval. But there were concerns within government over backlash to any repatriation<\/a> from community groups in electorally critical marginal seats in western Sydney, and the plan was abandoned.<\/p>\n The US funds the bulk of security operations across north-east Syria through the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. It wants the camp closed and has withdrawn funding and pushed allies to repatriate their citizens.<\/p>\n Islamic State \u201ccontinues to seek to indoctrinate residents and to infiltrate the detention facilities<\/a>\u201d at Roj, the US says.<\/p>\n The commander of US Central Command, Adm Brad Cooper, told a UN conference<\/a> in September \u201cas time goes on, these camps are incubators for radicalisation\u201d.<\/p>\n\u2018We just want her home\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018The conditions in the camps are dire\u2019<\/h2>\n