ISIS can regroup in Rojava camps as teens come of age: top Kurdish official

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A senior Kurdish official in northeast Syria (Rojava) warned on Saturday of Islamic State (ISIS) ability to regroup in camps and prisons in the region, where children of the extremist group's members are becoming adults. 

“Their [ISIS members'] children are growing up in camps," Elham Ahmed, President of the Executive Committee of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) told SDC-affiliated Ronahi TV on Saturday.

"Those children were aged 14 [when they were captured], but they have turned 18 or 19 now. They have become a generation that can help Daesh get stronger and regroup, creating a great threat again,” Ahmed said. 

ISIS took control of swathes of Syrian land in summer 2014. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – the SDC’s military arm – and the Global Coalition against Daesh (ISIS) declared the territorial defeat of the group in March 2019.
 
Thousands of people affiliated with ISIS have been captured by the Kurdish-led SDF. The women and children are kept in the al-Hol and Roj camps in Hasaka, while the men are jailed in prisons. 

Approximately 68,000 people – Syrians, Iraqis, and foreigners – are held in al-Hol camp. Most are the wives and children of ISIS fighters. Some 43,000 of them are children. 

Around 10,000 suspected ISIS fighters are held in prisons in Rojava, guarded by the SDF with the assistance of the US-led anti-ISIS coalition. 

Both Rojava and US officials have repeatedly called on countries to repatriate their nationals from camps and prisons, but few governments have heeded the call. 

A report published earlier this week by a UK-based rights organization described al-Hol camp as "Europe's Guantanamo", and called on European countries to repatriate their nationals. 

"Almost half the children (of all nationalities) living in the camps are under the age of 5 and the majority are younger than 12. More than 500 children are orphaned or otherwise unaccompanied," the report from Rights and Security International states.

"The claim that it is safer to leave women and children in the camps flies in the face of security experts who say that the real security risk comes from leaving these women and children in the detention camps where they are vulnerable to radicalisation," said Yasmine Ahmed, RSI's executive director. 

Ahmed told Ronahi TV that Rojava's administration has been "left alone" to deal with the "heavy burden" of ISIS-linked detainees.

“Some Asian countries come and take their people. Some say that they will take back their fighters as well, but this is not enough. There are a great number [of ISIS fighters] in prisons,” she added. 

A main reason for Western countries refuse to repatriate their nationals is the "fear" that some ISIS-linked suspects could be acquitted due to their laws and lack of proof in their home countries, to be released into wider society.

The international community is also failing to fund the trial process for domestic and foreign ISIS fighters in Rojava, Ahmed said - a position she branded a “crime.”

Rojava's administration said last month that it would begin removing Syrian citizens who wanted to leave al-Hol from the camp, and over 500 Syrians were removed from al-Hol in mid-November as part of the process. 

However, Ahmed told a symposium on October 5 that “those who remain in the camp will not be the responsibility of the self-administration.” 

ISIS is currently most active on the Syrian border with Iraq, especially in Deir ez-Zor province. Joint operations between the SDF and the Coalition are taking place frequently in a bid to quell ISIS activity.

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