Updated
There are fears for a heavily pregnant young Australian woman taken to Syria by her terrorist father and married off when she was 13 years old, as her health is failing amid the squalid conditions of a refugee camp in the country’s north.
Key points:
- Three Australian children — orphans of slain Australian IS terrorist Khaled Sharrouf — have been trapped at the al-Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria since the fall of IS in March
- The eldest girl, Zaynab, is injured by shrapnel, bleeding heavily and cannot stand, and there are fears for her and her unborn child
- The Australian Government says it will not risk Australian lives trying to help Australian citizens in Syria
The eldest child of notorious Australian terrorist Khaled Sharrouf, Zaynab, is eight months pregnant with her third child at the age of 17.
Her Sydney-based grandmother, Karen Nettleton, has flown to Syria in a desperate attempt to secure the release of Zaynab, her two siblings Hoda, 16, and Humzeh, 8, and Zaynab’s two toddlers, Aiysha, 3, and Fatima, 2, from the sprawling al-Hawl camp in the country’s Kurdish north-east.
Ms Nettleton told the ABC Zaynab is severely malnourished, has shrapnel in her chest and in the last 24 hours has been bleeding heavily and is unable to stand.
Hoda was also wounded and has trouble walking due to wounds on her left foot and ankle.
After the fall in March of the Islamic State group’s final stronghold, Baghouz, Zaynab, her siblings and children fled the regime and were taken to the al-Hawl refugee camp where thousands of wives and children of former IS fighters languish.
Conditions in the camp are squalid, disease is rife and medical care is poor and hard to access.
She was treated by a medical team at the camp last night, but there are concerns that Zaynab’s life will be at risk if she remains there.
“She’s malnourished, she’s having stomach pains; she has constant diarrhoea,” Ms Nettleton told the ABC.
“I am so worried about that child, she really needs to be in hospital to be really checked out, she’s like a skeleton.”
In early 2014 Zaynab was taken along with her four siblings to Syria by her mother Tara Nettleton to join their father Khaled Sharrouf, who left Australia to fight for Islamic State. Both parents have since died.
The two eldest boys, Abdullah and Zarqawi — then aged 12 and 11 respectively — were killed in the same 2017 US airstrike that killed Kahled Sharrouf.
The Australian Government is aware of the surviving children’s plight, but says they are unable to help until the orphans leave Syria.
More than 100 children have died on the way to the camps or since arriving, mainly because of severe malnourishment, pneumonia and dehydration, according to humanitarian group the International Rescue Committee.
Zaynab’s case has parallels with that of British teenager Shamima Begum, whose three-week-old baby died at one of the camps in March.
The British Government had refused to assist Ms Begum or her child and there was a public outcry in the UK after the death.
Grandmother’s desperate flight to Syria to free kids
Ms Nettleton, Tara’s mother, has spent five years trying to rescue her grandchildren from the toxic ideology of Islamic State, after her daughter Tara took the children to Turkey and then into Syria.
“They didn’t know they were coming here, they all thought they were going to Turkey,” Ms Nettleton told the ABC.
“They crossed the border into Syria and it wasn’t until some time later that Tara said to them they were in Syria.
“They’re just kids — they’re Australian children, they’re orphan children, they’re my children — and they’re not going to be a risk to anyone.”
She rejected suggestions the children wanted to stay in IS-controlled territory for the last five years.
“It was impossible for them to get out,” she said.
“Once you’re in there you can’t get out, you just can’t; if you leave they would’ve killed you, ISIS would’ve killed you and you couldn’t really trust people to take you out because they will turn you in to ISIS and you’d be killed.”
Photo:
Khaled Sharrouf was killed along with his two eldest sons in an airstrike in 2017. (ABC News)
Ms Nettleton’s trip to Syria is the third time she has flown to the region to retrieve her grandchildren: she travelled to Turkey in 2016 and 2018 but returned home empty-handed both times.
This attempt may have more success, as other foreign children held at the Syrian camps have been rescued by their home countries.
In March the French Government reportedly repatriated a group of five orphaned IS children from the al-Hawl camp.
About nine other countries including Egypt, Indonesia and Russia, have also been able to repatriate hundreds of their children.
“I want the (Australian) Government to assist in getting the children home,” Ms Nettleton said.
No help to leave Syria
The Australian Government has refused to help Australians held in the camps, including orphaned children such as the Sharroufs, leave Syria.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently said he would not risk Australian lives trying to extract Australian citizens of Islamic State families from refugee camps following the movement’s collapse.
“I think it’s appalling that Australians have gone and fought against our values and our way of life, and peace-loving countries of the world, and joining the Daesh fight,” Mr Morrison said in early April, using an alternate name for IS.
“I think it’s even more despicable that they’ve put their children in the middle of it.”
Ms Nettleton has previously been told by the Australian Government that if she can get the children to an Australian embassy in a nearby country, the Government will be able to provide emergency travel documents to help the children return to Australia.
Mr Morrison said counter-terrorism legislation before Parliament, if passed, would allow the Government to manage the return of any families from the region through a parole-like scheme.
The bill also allows the Home Affairs Minister to make an order that prevents an Australian citizen 14 years and older from entering Australia for up to two years.
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