Twenty three Australian children trapped in a detention camp in northeast Syria are begging to leave after a short attempt to travel out of the camp ended with them being sent back.
The children are being held at al Roj, a camp that houses foreign women and children with suspected links to Islamic State fighters.
Relatives say the group got on transport to leave earlier this month but the trip was stopped and they went back to the camp.
Baidaa, 11, said: “I just want to go and be free.”
Mohammed, 14, said: “I’m a normal person, but just in the wrong country.”
The children are the sons and daughters of 11 Australian women who travelled to Syria during the height of Islamic State’s self declared caliphate.
Some were taken there as toddlers while others were born in Syria and many have spent most or all of their lives in camps.
Human Rights Watch says the Syrian government announced on January 30 that the camps known as al Hol and Roj would be closed and that al Hol was later evacuated and shut down on February 22 after its population dropped in a chaotic way.
A report quoting an internal European Union memo said thousands of people escaped from al Hol after a change in control, raising fears that extremist groups could try to recruit people who got out.
In Australia, the children’s future has become a political flashpoint. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said Australia will not provide support to help the families return.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has said agencies have been working with the Commonwealth on planning in case some return to the state including access to schooling for the children.
Save the Children Australia has said it is not running efforts to get people out or bring them home but has urged politicians to focus on protecting children and to lower the political temperature.
Camp officials say they are willing to let the group leave again if arrangements can be made. For now, families say the children are still waiting in tents, holding on to the idea that Australia might one day be more than a story.
