00:02This is the first time that we have heard from any of the children who are part of this group.
00:07There are 34 Australians who tried to make that attempt to leave Al-Raj last Monday morning
00:12before they were turned back by Syrian government forces blocking their onwards travel to Damascus.
00:18In that group of 34 are 11 women and 23 children.
00:22And you can tell that this whole ordeal has really harmed the children.
00:26It's really hit them incredibly hard.
00:28Many had high hopes for what they were about to experience,
00:31getting out of a camp that seems like the only place they've ever really called home.
00:36And they had been dreaming of a life in Australia,
00:40only for that dream to be shattered when they were forced to turn back last Monday morning.
00:45It is still very unclear as to what will happen next for this group.
00:49They do have single-entry Australian passports in their possession.
00:53But one of the 11 women has, since that failed attempt to leave Al-Raj,
00:59she has been hit with a temporary exclusion order,
01:02which is a power the government has to ban someone over the age of 14
01:06from travelling to Australia for a period of up to two years.
01:10But when it comes to the children, none of them are actually covered by this travel ban.
01:14And that is why it's been particularly relevant, I guess you could say,
01:18to hear what they are hoping in this instance.
01:21It's quite striking just how many of these kids, when they start speaking,
01:26sound like your average Aussie kids.
01:29They were sitting in a tent earlier today, local time,
01:32reading kids' books that Aussie kids would be reading.
01:35The Very Hungry Caterpillar was one of the ones that stuck out to me
01:39from what we saw from the camp.
01:41And some of the kids have explained what they experienced last week,
01:45but also what their hopes are for the future.
01:49We saw, like, trees and all of these nice plants and animals.
01:57Then, um, we...
02:00Don't mean with animals.
02:01We saw animals, but that was the first time we saw a house.
02:05We didn't want to go back to our country, to our family.
02:08And show me it, like, build our family and, like, spend time with them.
02:14And, Matt, we've also learned a little more
02:16about what's happened at one of the other camps
02:19for Islamic State families just a few weeks ago.
02:23Take us through it.
02:25So, a lot of the focus from the Australian press of late
02:28has been on Al-Raj,
02:29considering that this group of 34 women and children have been there.
02:33But further south, there is a second camp known as Al-Hawl.
02:36It's very familiar to some of these women
02:39because they had actually lived there before being moved to Al-Raj.
02:42Even though Al-Hawl is not actually that far away,
02:45it is now in a different part of Syria.
02:47It is in an area of the country
02:49now controlled by Syrian government forces
02:52after the army of the new president, Ahmed al-Shadar,
02:55swept across large swathes of Syria
02:58that had been under Kurdish control for the best part of a decade.
03:02Not only was this camp, Al-Hawl, there,
03:05with, at one stage, up to 23,500 ISIS-linked families
03:12and associates inside this camp,
03:14but there were also some Islamic State prisons
03:16in this area as well.
03:19And the Syrian government has been very scathing
03:21of the behaviour, the conduct of the Kurdish forces,
03:25saying that they had effectively abandoned their posts
03:29discarding these facilities, both the camps and the prisons,
03:32left them in a situation where people could escape
03:35from those camps and prisons.
03:37And today in Damascus,
03:39we have heard from the Syrian Interior Ministry
03:41confirming that they believe there was a mass escape
03:44of IS-linked families and associates from the Al-Hawl camp.
03:49It's not exactly clear how many people have got out there.
03:51That detail has not been publicised
03:53by the Syrian Interior Ministry,
03:55but they have said that there were more than 130 different breaches
03:59of a 17-kilometre-long perimeter fence at Al-Hawl
04:04once Syrian government forces arrived,
04:06some six hours after the Kurdish forces,
04:08known as the SDF, had pulled back from there.
04:11So very scathing of that approach there.
04:13But we also know that Al-Hawl has been ordered to close.
04:16And of the people still in Al-Hawl,
04:19which at its peak included more than 6,500 foreigners
04:23from 44 different countries.
04:26Of that group still in the camp,
04:28they have been moved to a new facility
04:29near the Syrian city of Aleppo.
04:32Now, the ABC has asked the Syrian Interior Ministry
04:34whether or not any Australians are in that cohort there.
04:38Here's the response we got.
04:42In respect to the privacy of those who were held
04:45in the previous hotel, in inhumane conditions,
04:48we are keeping the data about the numbers and nationalities,
04:51but we are sure that everyone will be treated humanely,
04:54according to human dignity and human rights.
04:57And in the case of the presence of non-Syrian refugees,
05:01they will be contacted by their foreign ministries
05:04through the Syrian Foreign Ministry.
05:07That's the Syrian Interior Ministry
05:09speaking to the ABC earlier today in Damascus.
05:12You would have to say,
05:12even if there are groups of Australians in that cohort
05:15now residing in this new facility in Aleppo,
05:19based on the rhetoric that the Albanese government
05:21has been putting out there with regards to the Al-Raj group,
05:24this group of 34 who have shot to the headlines
05:26in the course of the last week and a half,
05:28even if Syrian authorities do contact the Australian government
05:32and say there are Australians in Aleppo,
05:33so I don't necessarily think, based on what we've heard,
05:36that we're going to see much support offered to that cohort
05:40from the Albanese government, Mel.
05:42All right, Matt Doran there in Jerusalem for us.
05:44Thanks very much.
Comments