Australian women who lived under Islamic State speak from Syria for first time since the fall of the Assad regime
Kirsty Rosse-Emile says she has been detained in the Syrian desert for six years. (ABC News: Haybar Othman)
Kirsty Rosse-Emile is a 30-year-old mother from Melbourne who likes hip-hop music, NBA basketball, fitness and nutrition.
She lives in a place known as Australia Street, with dozens of other Australians, but it's far, far from her home country.
Australia Street is in a camp deep in the Syrian desert, 30 kilometres from the Iraqi border.
Ms Rosse-Emile has been detained in the camps for six years, after being captured by Kurdish forces when they defeated the Islamic State terror group in March 2019.
"You don't know my story, you don't know why I'm here, it's not my choice to be here," she told the ABC.
Ms Rosse-Emile says she was told by lawyers not to reveal details of how she ended up living under the Islamic State in Syria. (ABC News: Haybar Othman)
The two detainees interviewed by the ABC in Al Roj camp, Ms Rosse-Emile and her friend Zeinab Ahmed, 29, refused to talk about how and why they came to be living under the Islamic State in Syria.
"Not because I don't want to answer, but we've been given advice by our lawyers that we only speak about conditions in the camp," Ms Ahmed said.
Ms Rosse-Emile said her story was "very unique".
"I can't really talk about so much of it here, because it might make problems for me," she told the ABC.
Australia Street's residents want to come back
The pair are among dozens of Australians detained in the camps and prisons of north-eastern Syria since the so-called "Caliphate's" defeat by a US-led coalition.
The Australian government said it does not know exactly how many Australians are being held in north-eastern Syria, but Ms Ahmed said in the Al Roj camp said there were 14 Australian women, who have 22 children.
Zeinab Ahmed says the people living in Australia Street all want to return to Australia. (ABC News: Haybar Othman)
About 2,600 people live in Al Roj, most of whom were originally from abroad.
According to Save the Children, about 180 people were repatriated by eight countries, including Spain, France, and Canada, last year.
Several other nations are still working out what to do about their citizens, many of whom have been in the camp for years.
"It's not a place for a child to be and every day, every day, especially for the past two months, every day it's just getting harder," Ms Ahmed said.
"Everyone knows there's a street [in the camp] — it's called Australia Street.
"We live closely, we have a strong connection because we all have the same motive. We all want to get home."
Neither would speak about their husbands.
Ms Rosse-Emile's husband, a much older, Moroccan-born man named Nabil Kadmiry, was reportedly stripped of his Australian citizenship in 2019 for fighting with IS.
He is thought to be in a Kurdish prison.
Middle East analyst Rodger Shanahan, who has spent years researching the Australians who joined the Islamic State, said Ms Ahmed's husband Dawod Elmir was killed in 2016 during the coalition campaign against IS in Syria.
Syrian government falls, Trump cuts aid
There are new fears for the fate of tens of thousands of detainees held in north-eastern Syria since the fall of the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December.
Less than a fortnight earlier, smaller rebel attacks expanded into a large offensive on government-controlled areas in Aleppo province, in Syria's north-west.
Syrian government forces retreated and along with their allies, they tried to stop the rebel's rapid advance south towards Damascus with air strikes and shelling.
But by December 8, the rebels had stormed into Damascus and Mr al-Assad fled as celebrations spread across Syria.
Loading...The rebels, known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), or Syrian Rebels, were formerly the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda and known as the Nusra Front.
HTS has been listed as a terrorist organisation by Australia, the UN Security Council, the UK, the US and Canada.
Now, Türkiye and Syrian rebel groups are attacking the Kurdish militias which guard the IS prisoners and detainees.
US President Donald Trump's new administration has also cut funding for food and services in the camps.
"That means we won't be getting the basics of like rice and lentils, oil and these types of things and cooking services like gas, kerosene … have been limited now and they stopped for a while, Ms Rosse-Emile said.
"So we don't know if it's going to continue or not, after this time frame. So we won't be able to cook, we won't be able to warm ourselves in the winter, so it's difficult."
Australian officials visited Al Roj
The women said Australian officials came to Al Roj in the second half of 2022, to conduct risk assessments, health checks and DNA tests on the Australians.
Then in October of that year they took four families from the camp back to Australia.
"They took the first group and we were so happy that some of us were getting out, some of our kids will be saved," Ms Ahmed said.
"Once they took them in there was backlash, there was backlash from when the announcement was made and then they never came back."
Ms Ahmed and Ms Rosse-Emile could be charged or placed under supervision if they return to Australia. (ABC News: Haybar Othman)
The Department of Home Affairs did not answer the ABC's questions about why Australia has not brought back the remaining women, or if any efforts were underway to repatriate them.
It said it was monitoring the security situation in Syria.
"These clashes are a significant distance from the internally displaced persons camps and detention centres," the department said in a statement.
The women have not been charged with any crimes in Syria but may face charges or be subject to control orders if they are brought back to Australia.
Ms Rosse-Emile, whose social media account in 2014 reportedly contained material supportive of the Islamic State, said she poses no danger to anyone in Australia but is in constant danger in the camp.
"These people call me names, or throw rocks at me, because I'm not covering my face or because they think now I'm a non-believer, just because of my personality, or I listen to music or I dress the way I dress and stuff like that," she said.
"So it is very difficult for me to continue to live here."
When asked if she regretted joining the Islamic State, she replied: "I don't want to answer that."
Ms Ahmed said she had become more afraid in recent months.
She said she has not been sleeping since December 8 — the day the Assad regime fell in Syria.
"I don't feel safe. I have severe anxiety," she said.
"We don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen to our children. It's so scary.
"We are willing to comply with whatever we need to upon arrival. We're not saying we want a free ride. Hear us out."
Experts say families should be returned to Australia for the welfare of the children living in camps in Syria. (ABC News: Haybar Othman)
Repatriation risks low, expert says
Dr Shanahan said there were multiple things the government needed to consider.
"It might not necessarily be a physical risk of conducting an attack, but it might be the fact that they're [possibly] unreconstructed jihadists who reject secular liberalism and might paint that over in order to be returned to Australia, but then just continue to proffer their particular world view that might impact on current or future generations of Australians," he said.
"So you need to look both at the immediate physical risk and also the longer term ideological risk from these kind of people because they have, after all, travelled a long way to join an organisation which has made threats against Australians and against which Australian troops have fought."
The Kurdish administration and international humanitarian organisations have long been urging countries like Australia to repatriate their citizens and their children, both for their own welfare and to help resolve the problem of the camps.
ANU criminologist Clarke Jones, who has worked extensively in the field of extremism, said Australia has already shown it can manage the risk of repatriating these families.
"The government has spent millions of dollars on countering violent extremism and counter terrorism strategies," he said.
"The government really needs to put their money where their mouth is and use those resources and use that training and to support these people.
"If we look at the history around the world of returning women and children in other countries… there hasn't been a lot of trouble as a result of the returning women and children. The statistics are very low. Certainly in Australia, there hasn't been any criminal offending from the women that have returned or from children that have returned."
Some families that were held inside the Al Roj detention camp for years have returned to Australia. (ABC News: Jamal Bali)
Both Dr Shanahan and Dr Jones agree that the welfare of the children in the camp should be prioritised and the families returned for that reason.
"The younger children, the longer [they spend] in that sort of environment, the more chance they will be influenced by that environment," Dr Jones said.
"The sooner the Australian government gets them out of those camps and brings them back to face the criminal justice system or other sorts of support, the better off they'll be."
Ms Rosse-Emile said she wanted to become a lifeguard and learn to dance when she returned to Australia.
She became tearful at the prospect of a reunion with her mother.
"I'm just waiting for the day that I leave here and enter the plane back to Australia and see my Mum in the airport and run to her and hug her," she said.
"I want to see my children thrive in school and education, do everything with them, go to the beach."
Her message to the Australian government: "Hello, I'm here. Can you just come and get me finally and my children and all the other Australians here? We're ready to start our lives afresh."