Nightly raids and violent beatings: Australia urged to accept citizens trapped in Syria as conditions in Roj camp deteriorate | Australian immigration and asylum
Conditions in the northeast Syrian camp to which 34 Australians have been forcibly returned are deteriorating dramatically, with reports of midnight raids and increasingly violent beatings increasing uncertainty about their future.
11 women and 23 Australian children, who were sent back to the Roj camp on Monday, returned to find their tents destroyed and their belongings confiscated, having gathered en masse in a row formerly known as Australia Street.
Kurdish authorities reportedly refused to return their tents, so the group dispersed with other families into the shrinking, unstable camp.
There is no established line of communication with the group and their immediate future (whether another attempt will be made to reach Australia) is increasingly uncertain.
The last remaining Australians at the camp after those previously repatriated by the government, this group are the wives, widows and children of killed or imprisoned Islamic State fighters.
They were given Australian passports and permission to leave the Roj camp.
However, efforts to reach Damascus and fly to Australia from there were disrupted when Syrian government officials stopped the convoys and did not allow them to cross into government-controlled territory. They had to return to Roj, in the far north-east of Syria, close to the borders of Türkiye and Iraq.
Sources on the ground in Syria say the camp is becoming increasingly unstable and resorting to violence. It is expected to soon pass from Kurdish control into the hands of the Syrian government.
There are also fears of renewed violence due to the uncertainty of the fragile ceasefire between the Syrian government and Kurdish forces, which currently maintain control of the Roj camp but have surrendered most of its territory.
‘We want his house’
“It is becoming more dangerous, more uncertain,” a Syrian source said.
“Other countries are taking on these returns. Australia has completely abdicated this responsibility.”
One mother said she was actively avoiding the news because hearing about the fate of Australians stranded in Syria was unbearable.
“It’s been almost seven years, we just want his house,” he said.
In Australia, human rights groups have called on Australian politicians to prioritize the rights of Australian children to be returned to safety.
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The government remained determined not to assist in the repatriation of Australians, as it had previously done for other Australians detained in the same camp.
The Prime Minister said he was against their return.
“I have nothing but contempt for these people,” Anthony Albanese told ABC radio.
“The government is not providing any support or assistance in repatriating these individuals.”
He previously said: “You make your bed, you lie in itWhen it was pointed out that the majority of the group were children and some were born in the camps, he said: “I think it is unfortunate that children are involved in this situation, it is not their decision, it is their parents’ or mothers’ decision.”
The chief executive of Save the Children Australia, which has been advocating on behalf of the group for years, said all political parties should reduce political rhetoric and put the welfare of vulnerable Australian children first.
“This is a group of innocent Australian children who, like every child, deserve safety and protection. This has been largely lost in the debate in recent days,” Mat Tinkler said.
“Every parent knows that babies and toddlers don’t make beds. The truth is that some of these children were born in displacement camps, and many were just toddlers when they were first taken there.”
“Had the government repatriated them in time, these children would now be sleeping in warm, comfortable beds at home in Australia. They have lost years of their childhood languishing in tents in circumstances that would shock most Australians.”
Tinkler said the government always had the power to repatriate its citizens, as both the Morrison and Albanian governments did in 2019 and 2022, but now “politics has gotten in the way of real solutions for these children.”
“Children are not responsible for their parents’ actions and their rights should not be brushed aside because it is politically expedient.
“Leaving them uncertain will not make Australian society safer. In fact, national security experts say it could pose a greater risk in the long term.”
‘Conditions in the camps are very difficult’
Human Rights Watch said the Roj camp is in the hands of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces but is expected to be handed over to the Syrian government soon.
“Conditions there appear to have deteriorated in recent weeks; we have been in contact with women to report near-midnight raids and beatings of a magnitude and severity not previously felt.”
Daniela Gavshon, Australia director of Human Rights Watch, said the organization had repeatedly pressed Australia and other governments to repatriate its citizens who have been unlawfully and indefinitely detained in northeastern Syria for almost seven years.
“Conditions in the camps are very poor. The situation is untenable and the government needs to find a solution. These Australians should be brought back to Australia for rehabilitation, reintegration and adult prosecution if deemed necessary.”
Gavshon said Australia was well equipped to reintegrate women and children in camps with services to support those experiencing displacement, violence, family separation and educational disruption.
“Experts have been saying for years that the biggest danger for Australia is not accepting the return of children from camps in north-east Syria and leaving them there.”
The Australian government has said it will seek to impose a temporary exclusion order on one of the women who is understood to want to return to Australia.
The Australian government undertook two successful repatriation missions involving eight orphaned children in 2019 and four women and 13 children in 2022, but has consistently said it has no plans to repatriate the final group. A woman returnee was accused of entering a restricted area in Raqqa province. Mariam Raad pleaded guilty and was granted conditional discharge in a NSW court.
Last October, two women and four children escaped from the nearby Al Hawl detention camp and traveled via Syria to Lebanon, where they were issued passports at the Australian embassy. They returned to Australia on a commercial flight.
In 2024, then home affairs minister Clare O’Neil was preparing to submit a plan to send the remaining Australians back to cabinet for approval. But there were concerns within the government about any backlash to repatriating community groups living in electorally critical marginal seats in Sydney’s west, and the plan was abandoned.
The United States funds the bulk of security operations in northeastern Syria through the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. He wants the camp closed, withdraws funds, and forces his allies to repatriate their citizens.
The Islamic State is trying to “brainwash the people and infiltrate detention facilitiesUSA says Roj too.
US Central Command Admiral Brad Cooper, He spoke at the UN conference “As time goes by, these camps become incubators of radicalization,” he said in September.
