Foreign Policy: Foreign ISIS Children Deserve a Home

Western governments have shirked their responsibilities for far too long.

Across the globe, hundreds of thousands of citizens have been evacuated to their home countries in recent months—the largest repatriation in history. But these coronavirus airlifts have passed over a particularly desperate group: the children of foreign Islamic State fighters. For years, the fate of these foreign families—originating from an estimated 70 countries—has hung in the balance as governments battle over the extent of their responsibilities. The need for an expansive, compassionate, and rigorous solution has never been more urgent nor the stakes higher.

Some 70,000 women and children previously associated with the Islamic State caliphate are being held in northern Syria in camps controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a mostly Kurdish militia that defeated the militant group with the backing of the United States, United Kingdom, and other members of the international coalition. Of those, an estimated 11,000 to 13,500 are foreign to Syria and Iraq, and most are children. (Separately, some 2,000 foreign men and 9,000 locals from Syria and Iraq are imprisoned in nearby camps.)

The situation at al-Hol and Roj detention camps is precarious at the best of times. The camps face severe overcrowding (the population of al-Hol ballooned nearly 700 percent last year) and high rates of child mortality. Children made up nearly three-quarters of deaths at the camp last year, many of them dying from preventable causes such as malnutrition and hypothermia.

The SDF has struggled to maintain control over the detained populations, at time ceding control to extremists implementing rules not dissimilar to those of the caliphate. Hisba—or religious police—enforce rules around clothing and behavior within the camp, even carrying out executions. Children have appeared in videos shot at the camp chanting Islamic State slogans and praising the group’s flag. Indoctrination of children, and implementation of the group’s austere reading of sharia, or Islamic law, is very much ongoing, raising concerns over both child welfare and the future security risks posed by leaving them in the camps.