HOME (BITTER) SWEET HOME!

Now that Abu Bakr al Baghdadi is gone and a new successor is on the rise, that still doesn’t mean anything to the women shoveled in the al– Hol refugee camp. The al-Hawl refugee camp (also al-Hol refugee camp) is a refugee camp on the southern outskirts of the town of al-Hawl in northern Syria, close to the Syria-Iraq border, which holds individuals displaced from Islamic State group-occupied territory. It is controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). As of April 2019, the camp’s population was 74,000 having had grown from 10,000 at the beginning of the year. According to CNN around 50,000 of the camp’s inhabitants are children, while most of the rest are women and 15% of the inhabitants here are foreigners, but the international community has for months neglected the camp.

The camp caught the attention of the world again after CNN reporters went to the camp and came face to face with the misery going on in the camp. While the reporters approach the women, some shout; “Sisters, don’t talk to them”, while the others respond; “No, sister, we have the right to speak”.  They talk over one another, pouring out a litany of grievances. The children are starting to steal. They don’t have money. The conditions are wretched. They want to go home.[1] But the CNN reporters are not the only ones who got access to the camp, on 14’th of November a team of journalists of the Albanian A2 television visited the camp as well, only to come across a couple of women who are citizens of Albania and North Macedonia. The journalist got the chance to talk to the woman who urged the government to help her, she even revealed her name; “My name is Revayet Shahini, I ask them (the government) to get us out of here, you can see how bad the conditions are, in the winter the conditions are even worse”, then the journalist asks her if it’s dangerous to live on the camp, to which she answers that it is a big risk to be there. She also reveals that she has been in Syria for six years now and the she wants to return home. In an interview for MIA the Minister for Interior Affairs Oliver Spasovski said he is on the same line with the State Department in terms of the danger posed by returnees from the battlefields; “People who are radicalized are quite dangerous for the safety of the environment. We are talking about people who have received adequate training so that they can be in those conflict zones. It is all a matter of control that should be established after their return to the country – it is the same whether they return from some of the camps, or whether it is their voluntary return to the country’s territory.

 In 2014, North Macedonia introduced the criminal code 322, “Participation in foreign war, police, paramilitary and paramilitary formations”. According to the Ministry of Interior, there are four female citizens of North Macedonia, along with seven children, they are currently located in the refugee camps in Syria. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted two of them, and they are helping them in the process of returning. The process contains securing travel documents and transportation from Syria to North Macedonia.

Our neighbors Bosnia and Herzegovina will allow the return of all its citizens who are now camped in Syria linked to the Islamic State terrorist organization. The opportunity was announced by BiH Defense Minister Dragan Mektic, who confirmed on Monday that there are about 260 Bosnian-Herzegovina citizens.  About one hundred BiH citizens participated in military operations, while others are their wives and children.
Women who wish to return to BiH will be treated in accordance with international conventions, and those belonging to ISIS will be held accountable, even though they were only auxiliary to this terrorist organization, the Hina news agency reported. Aid organizations warn that states should speed up the procedures for returning their citizens, as conditions at camps are unbearable, especially for children. Since the beginning of the year, 390 children have died in the camp from curable diseases.
Unofficial information says women and children were due to arrive in BiH last summer, and documents are now being prepared rapidly for the return of 30 women, 70 children and about a hundred men. But this figure may also increase. BIRN’s investigations reveal that security services have learned that some of the women were involved in fighting in Syria, and some were members of the Sharia police, which is responsible for many crimes against civilians.

Malik Garibi, the minister of social affairs in the Sarajevo canton, argues that women should be treated exclusively as victims, reports Bjesak.ba; “They did not take part in the fighting, they are women and children, who themselves have often been victims of various forms of violence. The mere fact that they have seen various crimes on them leaves significant trauma. It shows that they were victims and as a society we have choices. Would we like to disregard them or allow them to break the law in various ways in response to previous traumas? Or we will do our best to bring them back early and show that they truly regret the fact that they have joined the Islamic State, ”he said.
Three BiH nationals, seeking to be allowed to return to the country, have already written a letter stating that “everyone can make mistakes in life”.”

International organizations have urged their governments to take action for the return of women and children before it is too late, the facts are clear; Al Hol camp is a ticking bomb!

Meral Musli Tajroska – psychologist, expert on violent extremism and radicalization, and women rights activist

[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/12/middleeast/syria-al-hol-camp-isis-intl/index.html