Australians stranded in Syria ‘scared for their lives’ amid chaos after fall of Bashar al-Assad

Australian women and children trapped inside Syrian detention camps say they are “freaking out and so scared … praying for a miracle”, as uncertainty grips the country after the fall of the reviled Assad regime.

“They are scared for their lives – the fear is palpable,” said Kamalle Dabboussy, whose daughter and grandchildren were repatriated two years ago from the Roj camp in Syria’s north-east.

“Rumours abound in the camp about what is happening, nobody knows. The families tell us their supplies of food, medicine and fuel for heating have been disrupted in recent days and they were already fearful that it would worsen over a bleak northern winter.”

But the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has been non-committal about whether the government would try to repatriate its citizens.

“We received a briefing on Syria,” Albanese told a press conference. “Obviously these are difficult times, and it’s a moving situation there in Syria. At this stage there’s no change to the assessment that has been made there.”

Syria has been liberated from the brutal dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad after the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham seized Damascus on Sunday. But the fall of Assad has left a power vacuum and unleashed extraordinary uncertainty about the future of the country and the role of regional powers.

There are about 40 Australians – 10 women and 30 children – held in detention camps in the country’s Kurdish-controlled north-east. They are the wives, widows and children of slain or jailed Islamic State fighters.

Most have been held in the Roj camp – controlled by Kurdish forces – since 2019. Some of the children were born there and know no life outside the camp.

None have been charged with a crime or face a warrant for arrest.

Conditions at the camps are “dire”, human rights groups have consistently said, with a lack of food, water and medical facilities. Illness and malnutrition are rife and the security situation is “extremely volatile”, the Red Cross says.

Australia has previously conducted two successful repatriation missions: in 2019 of eight orphaned children, and in October 2022 of four women and 13 children.

But government sources have told the Guardian political hesitancy and electoral calculations have stalled further attempts. “The government will not revisit the issue before the next election,” one said.

A mother inside Roj sent a message out of the camp: “We are freaking out and so scared … I don’t know what to do. Praying for a miracle.”

Dabboussy, a longtime advocate for the Australian cohort trapped in Syria, said the uncertainty and chaos since the fall of the Assad regime had terrified the Australians trapped in the camps.

“Women also report a reduction in the number of guards that would normally ensure the security and stability of the camps. Now, these families are gripped with anxiety about what will happen in the coming days or weeks.”

The child rights organisation Save the Children launched a landmark legal case in 2023 seeking to compel – via a writ of habeas corpus – the government to repatriate the Australian women and children. The court action was lost. The federal court found that while the Australian government had the power to repatriate its citizens, and could do so easily if it had “the political will”, it had no legal obligation to do so.

Mat Tinkler, the chief executive of Save the Children Australia, said the organisation was “deeply concerned” for the safety of children across Syria amid the turmoil of the last few days.

“These innocent Australian children, most of whom are under the age of 12, along with their mothers, have been languishing in the camps for more than five years.

“For years we have been urging the Australian government to act before it’s too late. The longer the women and children stay there, the more danger they face.

“We urge the Australian government to arrange for the group’s immediate repatriation before the situation becomes even more volatile.”

Tinkler said Australia had demonstrated that its “robust social, national security, and judicial systems” could repatriate and reintegrate people from the camps.

“We should put our faith in these systems to do so again and give these innocent children a future.”