‘We waited 12 years’: escapees from Syria’s camps face an uncertain future

Children and women, relatives of suspected Islamic State jihadists, inside al-Hawl camp in the desert region of Syria's north-eastern Hasakeh province in January. Photograph: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP/Getty Images

For weeks he hovered near Turkey’s border with Syria hoping for good news. In early February, Xhetan Ndregjoni got word of what he was waiting for – his niece Eva was on her way after escaping the squalid desert camp in Syria where she had been held without charge since she was a child.

“I don’t have the words to describe that moment,” Ndregjoni said of their reunion.