The State Department is currently focused on repatriating a family of 10 American citizens who are stranded in Syria. These individuals are among the tens of thousands of people who are effectively imprisoned in desert camps and detention centers as a result of the war against the Islamic State. The officials clarify that if the transfer happens, it will be the largest group of American citizens brought back to the United States from northeastern Syria, where they are being held by a Kurdish-led militia. According to the State Department, 40 such citizens have been repatriated since 2016, including 25 children and 15 adults.
The family consists of Brandy Salman, 49, and her nine children, who range in age from approximately 6 to 25 years old, and all of whom were born in the United States. Ms. Salman’s husband, who was from Turkey, brought her and their children into Islamic State territory in 2016 and was later killed.
The detention centers in northeastern Syria primarily hold the families of suspected Islamic State militants. Many details surrounding the family’s interactions with the group prior to the collapse of the so-called caliphate are still unclear. This ambiguity, along with the apparent delay in identifying the family as Americans, highlights a larger and complex issue. Many countries have left their own citizens stranded in these camps due to fear and uncertainty. Consequently, tens of thousands of children are growing up in these camps under harsh conditions and are at risk of radicalization.
According to one of the Salman children, a son who is now around 17 years old, the family was taken into custody at Baghuz, where the Islamic State’s last major enclave fell in early 2019. Several years ago, camp guards separated him from his mother based on a disputed policy of removing adolescent boys.
It remains unclear what will happen to Ms. Salman and how her family will be resettled. Some adults who traveled to Syria to join ISIS and were later brought back to the United States have faced legal prosecution, while others have not.
Rebecca Jean Harris, Ms. Salman’s sister from Murfreesboro, Tenn., revealed in an interview that four years ago, F.B.I. agents visited her to inquire about her sister. After learning about this visit, Ms. Salman cut off communication with her family. Public records show that Ms. Salman has lived in various states, including New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York City, and Michigan. Her father, Stephen R. Caravalho, from Hot Springs, Ark., stated in an interview that the family has had sporadic contact with Ms. Salman over the years and that he last saw her during a visit to New York around 2006.
The Kurdish-led militia, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (S.D.F.), has been the United States’ main ally in the region in the fight against the Islamic State. However, the S.D.F. is currently holding approximately 60,000 people, the majority of whom are from Iraq and Syria, but about 10,000 are from 60 other countries. Despite not being a sovereign government, the S.D.F. is responsible for detaining and managing these individuals.
The situation is complex due to various reasons. The S.D.F. does not possess comprehensive and accurate records regarding all the individuals it is holding. Many nations, particularly in Europe, have been hesitant to allow their citizens to return, especially men suspected of being militants. In addition, there are concerns that under their respective legal systems, any incarceration would be of short duration.
Even children who were brought to the Islamic State by their parents often face stigma. The largest camp, Al Hol, is home to approximately 50,000 displaced people, mostly women and children, with an estimated half of its population being under 12 years old.
The United States has been urging other nations to address the problem by repatriating their citizens and has offered assistance. Last month, the United States flew 95 women and children to Kyrgyzstan.
Considering the stance of the United States, it is unclear why the Salman family was not brought out of Syria earlier. Letta Tayler, a researcher for Human Rights Watch who interviewed one of the Salman children in May 2022, questioned the delay. She raised concerns about the horrific conditions that these U.S. citizens were subjected to and stated that the U.S. government should provide an answer.
Ian Moss, a deputy coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department, acknowledged the question of delay but emphasized the challenges associated with identifying individuals in Syria and their origins. He assured that the U.S. government acts swiftly to repatriate Americans whenever they are discovered.
Mr. Moss mentioned that during a meeting with Ms. Salman and five of her children at one of the camps in July, she expressed her desire to return to the United States with her entire family. Since then, his office has been working on repatriating them.
In July, Fionnuala Ni Aolain, the United Nations special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, also interviewed the same teenage boy. Both researchers shared notes from their conversations with him on the condition of anonymity. It should be noted that The New York Times was unable to independently verify all the details in his account.
As per the boy’s account to Ms. Tayler, when he was around 9 years old in Turkey, his father informed the family that they were going camping. However, after several days of travel, his father revealed that they were in Syria. Due to fear, his mother mostly kept the children indoors while in Syria.
According to the notes from the boy’s account, when the Kurdish-led militia took the family into custody at Baghuz, they sent his older brother, who was then around 17 years old, to a prison for adult men, separating him from their family. The older brother, now around 21, is still alive.
The younger teenager, who is now approximately 17 years old, lived with his mother and other siblings at the Al Hol camp until early 2020. One day, guards seized him and several other teenagers without notifying their families or allowing them to collect their belongings at a marketplace area in Al Hol.
He was initially held in what appears to have been a latrine for about a month before being transferred to the Houry center. The Houry center is sometimes referred to as a rehabilitation or deradicalization center for youths.
Human Rights Watch featured the boy in a video that highlighted children stranded in Syria after their parents took them to join ISIS. They obscured his face and used a pseudonym to protect his identity. In the video, he expressed the sentiment shared by many other children in the camps, stating, “It’s not only me. We are a lot of kids, you know. No one wants to stay, just growing up here doing nothing. That’s what we all feel.”
Ms. Ni Aolain, the U.N. special rapporteur, who is also a law professor, published a report that documented her visit to Syria and the systematic violation of human rights caused by the forced arbitrary separation of hundreds of adolescent boys from their mothers. The report stated that every woman she spoke with identified the snatching and disappearance of their juvenile and adolescent boys as their main concern. A significant number of boys she interviewed described their sudden removals as violent and causing extreme anxiety, as well as mental and psychological suffering.
Militia officials have defended the practice of separating boys from their mothers on several grounds, including reducing the risk of pregnancies in the camps and preventing the indoctrination of young men by women who are still affiliated with the Islamic State.
In 2022, more than 3,000 people were repatriated from the S.D.F.’s custody, which is higher than the combined number of repatriations in the previous three years. Furthermore, home countries have taken back an additional 2,500 individuals so far this year, according to the State Department. However, roughly 9,000 adult male detainees, including approximately 2,000 individuals from countries other than Iraq or Syria, remain imprisoned. Out of the 50,000 residents in Al Hol, about 7,500 are from third countries. The department also stated that the smaller camp, Roj, houses approximately 2,400 individuals, and there are several hundred teenage boys in the youth centers.
Since he was taken to the Houry Center, the teenage boy has…
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