About 460km from where his mother and sister remain trapped in a Syrian detention camp, Yusuf Zahab – trafficked from Australia into Islamic State territory at around the age of 12 – is believed to be held inside Iraq’s opaque prison system.
He was a child, and never a combatant, during the reign of IS’s so-called caliphate. He was separated from his mother after the fall of Baghuz in 2019 and has spent the remaining years in Syrian prisons – surviving bombings, beatings, and tuberculosis – before he was transferred to Iraq this month.
Along with his relatives in al-Roj camp, Zahab – who is now about 23, and has never been charged with a crime or faced a court – faces an uncertain future, albeit under different circumstances.
The Greens – as well as human rights groups and charities – have pleaded with the Albanese government to stop treating the children detained in north-east Syria as “disposable political pawns” and assist their return to Australia, after first-hand accounts from inside al-Roj camp laid bare the extent of their plight.
It came after the Guardian reported the stories of several of the 23 Australian children held in the detention camp with their mothers, the wives and widows of suspected Islamic State fighters who travelled to Syria during its so-called caliphate.
Speaking after the Guardian’s report, the Greens’ home affairs spokesperson, David Shoebridge, issued a fresh appeal to the government.
“Just listen to the recordings – they are kids,” Shoebridge said. “Children are crying and distressed because politicians are treating them as disposable political pawns. One of these kids have never seen a house before, has only ever grown up with people living in tents. For the prime minister to know this and just shrug his shoulders because he wants to look crueller than Pauline Hanson is hard to see.
“Australians are allowed to travel back to Australia; it is a core right of being a citizen. It is a question of when and how. In 2019 and 2022 we saw an orderly return with support and monitoring, and it has worked. What the ugly politics of 2026 are doing is throwing away these lessons in what works for a hate-filled political attack on children.”
There has been less said about the Australian men – some of whom allegedly coerced their families to join them in Syria – now detained in Iraq.
Women ‘devastated’ by failed return attempt
Sydney doctor Jamal Rifi, who is in Syria trying to help women and children return to Australia, told the Guardian he was informed Zahab was being held in Iraq but the situation was “vague and chaotic”.
He said Zahab “was just a boy who was taken to Syria while he was 12 years old” by his family and had no connection to IS.
“Right now, all we know is that prisoners that were under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces have been transferred from Syria into Iraq,” Rifi said.
“We know that there is a small cohort of Australians among them. We don’t know what their status [is], we don’t know what’s going to happen with them.”
But Rifi said his focus remained on the group of 34 women and children, who left al-Roj camp earlier this month with the aim of flying to Australia, only to be forced to turn back before reaching Damascus.
“The women and children that are in the camps right now, they’re not doing so well. They are devastated, heartbroken and very disappointed that their internment continues in the camp after they have experienced a bit of freedom.
“For that short period of time that they managed to be out of the camp the kids saw houses for the first time, [they saw] baby cows, a donkey – they haven’t seen these before. What they want right now is to go back to their home country, Australia.”
Their attempted return has unleashed a political furore at home, with Labor under pressure from the Coalition and One Nation to prevent them resettling in Australia.
After the federal government helped repatriate four women and 13 children in 2022, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said they would not assist this latest cohort.
The Australian government cannot prevent its citizens from returning home of their own accord, except in the case of a temporary exclusion order, which can prevent an Australian citizen from entering the country for up to two years if they are deemed a security risk. One of the Australian woman has been issued a TEO.
The prime minister has expressed sympathy for the children but has repeatedly said he has “contempt” for their parents.
Some of the women have said they wanted their children repatriated at any cost, even if it means putting them in the hands of relatives in Australia while they remain behind in the camp.
Albanese would not be drawn on “hypotheticals” when questioned on Thursday about the prospect of only repatriating the children.
“We’ve made clear that what we haven’t done is repatriate people, and we have no plans to do so,” he said.
Rifi said planning another repatriation attempt was too difficult because of the shifting security situation across north-east Syria.
While the camp remains under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Force, the Kurdish administration has ceded most of its territory in recent weeks to the Syrian government. Government forces are expected to take over al-Roj camp, perhaps imminently.
“There are no contingencies being planned right now because things are changing very rapidly in the area,” Rifi said.
“We are happy that around the camp things are safe but the concern is on the outskirts of the current area controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces. There is … a resurgence of [Islamic State]-related people doing some attacks against the soldiers of the Syrian government. And the concern right now is about continuing the safety and security of those in the camp.”
Rifi said that with the SDF announcing their intention to close al-Roj camp, it was hoped there would be a peaceful transition to Syrian government control, “unlike what happened in al-Hawl, where that transition was a little bit chaotic, and that led to a number of prisoners to escape the prison and also to escape the al-Hawl camp”.
Concerns over fate of male prisoners in Iraq
With the Syrian government taking over increasingly large swathes of territory in previously Kurdish-controlled north-east Syria, the US Central Command forcibly transferred more than 5,700 male prisoners from Syrian jails into Iraqi custody.
They are believed to include suspected Australian IS fighters who allegedly forced their families to join them in Syria.
Zahab is believed to be held alongside them.
The Guardian tried to contact lawyers for the Australian men detained in Iraq. One, who represents several of the prisoners, confirmed that neither he nor his clients’ families had heard from the Australian or Iraqi governments since the transfer from Syria.
But lawyers for French nationals accused of being IS fighters allege that inmates have been subjected to “torture and inhumane treatment” in Iraq, including beatings and threats of sexual assault.
Iraq also has consistently executed people convicted of terrorism offences by hanging – and at least one Australian has previously been sentenced to death after a court found him guilty of being a member of IS.
The Iraqi embassy in Canberra did not respond to a request for comment.
