The living conditions in the camps for family members of the Islamic State (ISIS, for its acronym in English), which contain, as a minimum, to 17 Spanish children, are getting worse. At the end of December, two minors of other nationalities died in the camp at Al-Hol, in northeastern Syria. One of the young died due to severe malnutrition and another of unknown causes that syrian activists have blamed the lack of medical treatment and to low temperatures. In the Hol, among flimsy tents, a total of three Spanish women of ISIS try to avoid a similar fate for their 17 children. All are still trapped in limbo, waiting for the Spanish Government to take the decision to repatriate the children and also their mothers, who expected to be judged for alleged crimes of terrorism.
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“By little not out burning the shop of my daughter, and my grandson,” he laments in conversation of WhatsApp Khaleel Mohamed, the father of the ceuta Luna Mohamed Miludi (24 years old), and grandfather of a child of three who still does not know. “Used stoves, kerosene for heating, but are very dangerous”, she explains. The family of the Spanish there captive fear that some of the young may succumb also to the cold, or the fire.
it is Not a new scenario. Last year killed more than 450 children in the makeshift camps where members of the Protection Units Popular kurdish (YPG) in kurdish) are the guardians to a total of 80,000 women jihadists and their offspring. “You aren’t the first [to die of cold] nor will they be the last. Low temperatures exacerbate the problems of health and as a result there are frequent deaths on the field. Without more international support, this will continue to happen”, warned the dr. Alan Dahir, the Red Crescent of Kurdistan, in statements collected by the Information Centre of Rojava.
In the case of Spanish children, the families are all suffering from malnutrition and respiratory problems. The smallest of all has, in addition, a dermatitis face acute. The spokesman of the forces, kurdish-arab, and Abdulkarim Omar, has reiterated this message through WhatsApp to THE COUNTRY that “the Spanish Government has not initiated contact to repatriate any of its nationals”.
The fragile health situation is not limited to the fields where they remain held by the relatives of ISIS. This tragic scene is charged each year the lives of several babies in the camps that they are also home to syrians who have fled the war, either as refugees -5,7 million in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey— or as internally displaced persons in Syria -6,2 million, according to the UN.
The Spanish Miludi inhabits the camp at Al-Hol, the most crowded of the five enabled which is situated 120 kilometers south of the Turkish border, and seven of the border with Iraq. To this makeshift field fence have gone 70.800 people, the vast majority women and children of fighters jihadists imprisoned after the fall of the caliphate in the past month of march.
As in the case of the rest of Spanish, Miludi was evacuated for nine months of Baguz, which was the main stronghold of the caliphate in Syria, the so-called annex for foreign Al-Hol along with 8,000 children and 4,000 women of 50 different nationalities. Among a sea of abayas black and canvas white of the UN, there is also the moroccan Loubna Fares (40 years), widow of the jihadist Spanish Navid Sanati and mother of three young spaniards aged between three and nine years. Unlike the other two Spanish captives, neither Fares nor Miludi have signed a petition for repatriation. Yes he did, according to ensure family members and sources close to the defense consulted, the madrid Moon Fernández (30 years) and Yolanda Martinez (34). Both of them have your charge with a total of nine children between the ages of four months and 12 years, of which four are orphans. The past month of may were transferred to the field of The Red, more to the north and less crowded, with a total of 2,000 people.
The offensive launched by Turkey last October on the north of Syria to expel kurdish forces of the YPG, that terrorists for their ties to the PKK-Turkish, has complicated the situation for these children both in terms of security and humanitarian assistance and medical. The deployment of guards has been reduced by almost a third and the local NGOS have ceased practically to operate in the fields to be mobilized in the front of battle.
uncertain Future
Fearing a defeat in front of the air superiority turkey, the YPG have resumed negotiations with the regime in Damascus, with whom they have sealed an agreement. According to the agreement reached with the Russian mediation, “the management of the fields is kept under control from the forces of the regional [KURDISH]and the syrian Army is in charge of the control of the border with Turkey where they have been deployed all its forces”, affirmed the spokesman of kurdish.
however, in an interview with the French magazine Paris Match, syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, said that the foreign fighters captured in northern Syria “will be judged according to the counter-terrorism legislation the national”, without specifying the luck to be able to run the minors. “Until we form a new Government not take any decision regarding repatriation”, reiterate various sources of the Spanish Government, who point out that “opposing stances” between “an Interior Ministry reluctant to repatriation” and “the Exterior, which is favorable to a return of the minor, and the prosecution of their mothers in Spanish territory”.
The own Josep Borrell stated, when he was still Foreign minister in functions, that Spain repatriaría the spaniards trapped in the fields. It was during his examination before the European Parliament —when it still occupied the portfolio of minister— and to the question of whether the Spanish Government was going to take charge of this group. But the final decision is still pending.
Although not all women have requested personally, the families of the jihadists in Spanish yes they asked for the past month of may, the repatriation of women and minors, but ensure that until now have not had a clear response from the Spanish authorities.
