Syria
Following the capture of ISIS' last stronghold of Baghouz, women and children who emerged from the village or surrendered to the Kurdish forces were taken to Al Hawl camp, which has now squeezed in around 72,000 people. Among them are about sixty women and children from Australia. October 2019 for Australian Associated Press.
Dubbed the ‘iraqi Market,' people held in the camp are able to buy produce from outside sellers and then sell it in their own stall in order to make money for the other necessity supplies for their family, bringing a sense of permanence to the fenced in grounds.
Women in Al Hawl refugee camp raise their index finger for the camera, symbolising their allegiance to ISIS. The single finger in the air refers to their rejection of any other Islamic interpretation but the fundamentalist view held by ISIS.
Due to the sheer amount of people living in Al Hawl camp and a lack of access to medicine, various diseases are spread including hepatitis, staphylococcus and tuberculosis.
The UN has repeatedly called for foreign governments to take back their citizens from Al Hawl camp and have urged for states not to strip people of their passports, especially children, who remain vulnerable to indoctrination and radicalization.
Walking through the market in Al Hawl camp in Syria, home to many ISIS affiliates, visitors have to be accompanied by armed guards as women hurl abuse at those not wearing conservative Islamic dress.
Considering there are thousands of women still affiliated with ISIS inside Al Hawl camp in Syria, failure of foreign governments to take women and children home only increases the possible security risk as they share close quarters with those who are radicalised.
Many of the children in Al Hawl camp were born during the time of the so-called ISIS caliphate, therefore suffer severe trauma, have not attended schooling and are at risk of being stateless if they are holding ISIS birth certificates.
Blankets dry on the fence leading into Al Hawl camp, as the winter months draw near and freezing temperatures seep through the thin walls of tents, causing risk of death for the ill and children.
Women buy food at the ‘iraqi market' in Al Hawl camp. The majority of women still wear full Islamic dress in order to avoid violence or death by still radicalised women. Thousands of foreigners from countries such as Russia, Morocco, Tunisia, Germany, Belgium, the UK and Australia live in this camp. Some of them claim they were never members of ISIS, even though they were still with them to their last days.
Children throughout Al Hawl camp hold up fingers, cardboard, toys, or anything available to mimic guns. Considering they were born in, or grew up in, territory controlled by ISIS, for the majority of their lives they have witnessed fighting and battles.
Ahmad Assad from Sydney, Australia, took his wife and three of his young children to Syria and remained in ISIS controlled territory until the last stronghold was retaken at the end of March, 2019. He is now in one of the SDF jails in Northeast Syria.
Mahir Absar Alam, 26, travelled to Syria in 2014, from Melbourne to allegedly do aid work, though ended up living under ISIS until March 2019. He is visibly thinner since leaving Australia, and hopes the government will repatriate him so he can stand trial in his home country – though this is unlikely to happen.
Farmland and houses between Hawl village, Hasakeh and Qamishli, Syria, October 2019.
Farmland and houses between Hawl village, Hasakeh and Qamishli, Syria, October 2019.
Farmland and houses between Hawl village, Hasakeh and Qamishli, Syria, October 2019.
Farmland and houses between Hawl village, Hasakeh and Qamishli, Syria, October 2019.
Areej Husrum's house had been destroyed twice and her husband killed by Syrian regime shelling before her and three of her seven children finally made the decision to flee their village southwest of Idlib in 2019. The forty-five year old mother, now shelters in a small camp near Raqqa after a weeklong journey on foot. October 2019 for The National.
Husrum's daughter Zeineb is traumatised by the war and can barely speak in front of strangers. Between May and November 2019, the UN recorded the displacement of at least 630,000 people. As the bombardment of civilian areas in Idlib by the Syrian regime and its Russian ally intensified at the end of 2019, around 300,000 people fled the region in December alone. “All the time in Idlib you are ready to die. It's up to chance, if you are lucky or not. Daily there is shelling, fighting, there is aircraft,” Husrum said.