[ad_1]
Several Swedish Islamic State women and their children have fled to Turkey recently, from three different prison camps in Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria. Most were detained by the Turkish police within hours of reaching the border communities on the Turkish side. The Swedish authorities have been notified and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Stockholm, confirms this.
“We know that there are reports that some women and the children who accompany them are in the border areas between Syria and Turkey. We follow this,” writes the press service of the Foreign Ministry in an email to Expressen.
Last assembly
After the IS terror group suffered heavy losses in both Syria and Iraq, most of the foreign recruits fled to the city of Baghuz in the Syrian province of Dayr al-Zawr on the Euphrates River. There they hid. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF, besieged Baghuz along with foreign troops from France, the United States, and England. After very tough battles, which lasted between February and March 2019, IS lost the last stronghold. The SDF captured thousands of IS members and their families. The men ended up in secret prisons, while the women and children were placed in heavily guarded prison camps.
– Life here is hell. We live like dogs, an Islamic State woman in one of the camps told Expressen.
The women and children live in tents and are guarded 24 hours a day. Children are separated from their mothers when they turn 13, to be placed in a prison-like camp with the aim of removing them from the environment of the Islamic State.
– It’s not just any school. Kurdish teachers brainwash our boys. Everybody tries their best to get out of here, says a SI woman.
Sweden does not have diplomatic representation in northeast Syria and the country’s position has always been that it cannot assist people with Swedish connections with consular assistance. The only ones who received help to return home were the seven children of the murdered terrorist Michael Skråmo. Foreign Ministry Ambassador Per Örnéus, Sweden’s special envoy for the Syrian crisis, wrote in an earlier response to Expressen:
“The children of Skråmo were confirmed orphaned and therefore prioritized from both a Swedish and a local perspective (the autonomous administration that controls northeast Syria and the camps).”
Since then, all those who fled the prison camps either moved to Turkey, were arrested and deported, or managed to return to Sweden on their own.
Common method of bribery
Donations from supporters in Sweden, but also in other countries, are sent to contact persons in Syria to help them. It is money used to pay human traffickers and to bribe guards in the camps. This is confirmed by several independent sources in northeast Syria.
– I paid 15,000 dollars (about 150,000 crowns) to be smuggled out. Then there are other overheads, like temporary accommodation and smuggling across the border into Turkey, a Swedish woman who was married to an IS member told Expressen.
Recently, several IS families have crossed the Turkish border. Most have ended up in communities along the border and have been arrested by the Turkish police. Several women and children are now sitting in Turkish police stations waiting to be sent back to Sweden.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs writes:
“Several people have returned to Sweden in recent years after being in Syria. The Swedish authorities, including the police and social services, are well prepared to respond to these people upon their return ”.
