The last detention camp for ISIS wives and kids

0:00This message comes from NPR sponsor CFP, certified financial planner professionals committed to acting in their clients' best interests. Learn more at letsmakeaplan.org. On today's State of the World, we go to Syria, to the one remaining detention camp still holding the wives of ISIS fighters and their children.

0:28You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories. Up close, what are happening? It's Tuesday, April 14th. I'm Christine Arismath. Eleven years ago, ISIS took over huge parts of Iraq and Syria, declaring a militant Islamic caliphate. More than 50 ,000 foreigners flocked to it from all over the world. When Iraqi and Syrian forces backed by the U.S. defeated ISIS territorially, ISIS fighters who weren't killed were imprisoned, and their families put into detention camps where they have languished. NPR's Jaina Raff went to the last remaining camp for ISIS families in northeastern Syria.

1:15The first thing you notice here at Roj camp is the kids. There are lots of them from almost 60 countries all over the world. A little boy kicks a soccer ball. A little girl pedals madly on a bicycle. Can I see that one? One child comes out of her tent to show us her artwork. It's a little girl, and she is showing us this painting she's made with really bright colors. It looks like a flower, and on the back it says, Hello, friends. This isn't an ordinary upbringing, though. These are the children of foreign ISIS fighters and the women who married them. They've been in this isolated detention camp for the past seven years.

1:58A bigger camp for ISIS families, Al-Hal, shut down in February amid fighting between Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces. Detainees here are now even more desperate to leave. The ABC can reveal Australian families with links to Islamic State fighters have left a camp in northeastern Syria and have tried to begin their journey home to Australia, but they now appear to have been turned around. We don't know what's going on. We want the safest way out for our kids, but we don't know. We meet one of the Australians who describes bundling up the children the night they left a few weeks ago. Every night when we put them to sleep, we tell them that one day it will be our last night here.

2:38And that night came, and we picked our kids out of bed, we got them dressed, we took them, we left. Relatives had managed to get passports for them, so the camp let them go. She says her daughter was gulping in the air through the open car window as they passed farm fields. She's swallowing the air and she says, Mum, it's so sweet. And then she sees a house for the first time. And then the car stops and we're turned around. And then how do you explain to a six-year-old that you're going back? A Syrian government checkpoint turned them back. Australia's government called them a potential security risk and said it won't help them return.

3:19The young woman did not want to give her a name because she and others have been advised by Australian lawyers not to talk. She says they're prepared to face justice in Australia. There's a legal system, and whatever needs to be done to ensure that our children are safe, we're willing, we will comply with whatever needs to be done, whatever we have to do. We first met this young woman a few years ago, in Elhall Camp, before the Australians were moved here. She and other Australian women had strung up scarves and sparkly lights from the ceilings of their tents. They were raising their children together, trying to keep them from being radicalised, they said.

3:56Are you the youngest? How old are you? Oh, don't run away. As we talk, a shy six-year-old girl comes up with a card she's made of construction paper. Did she make that? It's a secret. Okay. It has a flower on it. She was born in the camp. She's the youngest and the oldest is 14. There are 11 Australian women and 18 of their children in this camp of roughly 2 ,300 people. Almost all are foreigners and about 60 % are children. All are entirely dependent on aid, including food and medical care, which are sometimes disrupted by security issues. There are few books or school supplies. You can see the kids are trying to just get papers from wherever they can, and they can't even find scissors and glue, and they just make the most of whatever they have.

4:44The camp is desolate. Layers of wire fences and rows of tattered plastic tents pitched on bare earth. We're allowed to spend only two hours here. Not enough time to visit the section which holds what guards say are the more radicalized women and children. Some of them, they were snipers. They participated in the fight against us in Kobani battle. That's Shivaria Freen, the camp's head of security, who fought ISIS in the Kurdish city of Kobani.

5:17She says some women here still receive messages from ISIS cells. She says when they see Kurdish guards, they throw stones. Some threaten to behead them. The part we see, though, is almost all friendly kids. Hi, Oda. And women who have had years to ponder the paths that led them here. I'm struggling a lot. That's Huda Muthanna, one of three American women camp officials say are here. I'm really, like, scared for my situation, for my son's situation as well. and I'm very desperate to get out of here. Mathana was born in New Jersey and issued a U.S. passport. The U.S. government then stripped her of citizenship, arguing that her Yemeni father was a diplomat when she was born, making her ineligible.

6:05Her son here is now nine years old. None of the detainees here have ever been charged. Mathana says if she were able to go home... My goal is to help younger people, teenagers, many teenagers out there who are falling for this ideology, wake up and realize that it's not the truth, it's not the real version of Islam. As-salamu alaykum. A lot of the women here say they regret joining ISIS, they regret being lured here. Some of them were trafficked, some came against their will, but they've been stuck here. year after year. Now that this region faces an uncertain future, it's even more precarious here.

6:51Regional officials and even the U.S. military say ISIS sleeper cells are reactivating. U.S. forces who battled ISIS fighters with the Kurds are pulling out, handing over to the Syrian government. Rafreen, the security official, says the Kurdish-led administration is not letting just anyone leave the camp, but...

7:15Any countries who are willing to get back, repatriate their citizens, they are willing to come and take them, which for years we've been calling for that. And year after year, most countries have ignored that call. Jaina Raf, Rojkamp in northeastern Syria.

7:35That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening. This message comes from ID Tech. ID Tech is where kids 7 to 17 find their people. The Camp Crunch Labs IRL, BattleBots, and Game Design people. Visit IDTech.com and use code IDTech to save$150. This week on Up First, the Trump administration and Iran do not have a peace deal. Now the president says the Strait of Hormuz is under a U.S. blockade. What that means for the ceasefire in Iran remains to be seen. And what it means for gas prices, those will likely continue to climb. Follow the latest developments. We'll have them every morning on Up First.

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