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children, 25 and at least one British woman.26 This
list is most likely incomplete, however, given the
fuzzy situation on the ground and the fact that
not even Kurdish forces or Western intelligence
services seem to have a full picture.
Next to the security conditions in the Kurdish
camps and prisons, the humanitarian situation
too has worsened. Hot summers and cold winters
have continued to take a toll on a vulnerable
population, suffering from malnutrition and poor
sanitary conditions. In this context, some
children have been reported deceased, including
a few Europeans. Conditions were already dire
before the Turkish offensive, but they further
deteriorated, not least as a result of decreasing
Kurdish staff available in the camps. In al-Hol,
for instance, humanitarian access to the “annex”
for foreign women and children has become
extremely difficult, with a clear impact on that
population in terms of medical support or
schooling, notably.27 The COVID19 pandemic
has only worsened the situation: in addition to the
risk of infection within prisons and camps (only
a few cases have been reported so far), the crisis
has hampered the capacity of humanitarian actors
to travel to the area and conduct their mission.
There are also concerns that measures to prevent
the spreading of COVID19, such as less physical
contacts between guards and prisoners, might
facilitate informal power grab by ISIS-linked
groups and exacerbate a permissive environment
for criminal activities in the camps, including
those aiming at planning exfiltrations.28
In total, according to our count, more than 53
European women with an even higher number of
children would have managed to vanish from the
camps of al-Hol and Ain Issa since October 2019.
The whereabouts of some of them are unknown.
Most allegedly travelled to Idlib province, in
northwest Syria.29 While some of them may have
re-joined a jihadi group still active in that region,
others have reached Turkey clandestinely, or
Turkish-controlled territories in Syria, from
where they could be deported to their countries
of origin, particularly since Turkey’s Interior
Minister declared in November 2019 that his
country was “not a hotel for foreign terrorists”
and pledged to accelerate the deportation of
European foreign fighters.30
Since October 2019, at least four European men
as well as 73 women and children were deported
back to their countries of citizenship by the
Turkish authorities, but possibly more as there is
no official figure available (Finland:1531,
Germany:2032,
UK:133,
Netherlands:734,
France:1335,
Sweden:136,
Denmark:137,
Belgium:1938). Many of them were escapees from
Ain Issa and al-Hol, but not all. Some had been
unaccounted for until they managed to exfiltrate
themselves into Turkey, whereas others had been
in Turkish custody for some time already. Only
in very exceptional circumstances have European
governments proactively repatriated European
citizens directly from Syria. These repatriations
concerned almost exclusively (unaccompanied)
children or children in very dire health
conditions. Since October 2019, European
governments have brought home 29 children
from Syria, mostly from al-Hol (Finland:239,
Germany:740, UK:441, Italy:442, France:1143,
Denmark:144), whereas Germany and Italy both
repatriated a mother along with their kids, which
is highly exceptional given European
governments’ reluctance to see ISIS members
return (see below). Prior to the Turkish offensive,
34 European children had already been
repatriated in 2019 (Austria:245, Netherlands:246,
France:1747, Sweden:748, Belgium:649), whereas
Italy is the only European country to have
repatriated a male fighter, Samir Bougana,50 in
June 2019.
EGMONT Royal Institute for International Relations
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