Foreign women linked to IS in Syria detention camps hope for amnesty

A camp near Syria’s border with Iraq houses more than two thousand people who have been held here for almost a decade.

Many of the women are either the wives or widows of Islamic State fighters who were defeated in 2019, ending a self-declared caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria.

Foreign women living in Roj camp are hoping for an amnesty after a government offensive this month weakened the Kurdish-led force that guards it.

The army captured most of the territory previously held by the Syrian Democratic Forces, including al-Hol camp, which houses nearly 24,000 mostly women and children linked to IS.

Some of the foreign women in Roj camp said they want to go back home, while others said they prefer to stay in Syria.

A Belgian, who identified herself as Cassandra Judge, said she wants to get out of the camp but would like to stay in the Kurdish-controlled area of Syria.

She said that her French husband was an IS fighter killed in the northern city of Raqqa, once considered the de facto capital by IS.

Judge said the Belgium government visited the camp twice but only repatriated women who had children, unlike her. She was 18 when she came to Syria, she said.

"Women alone like me must escape from the camp. That’s what the foreign minister told my family, said Judge.

“They said if your daughter wants to come back home, then tell her to escape from the camp to Turkey, and we will take her from there."

One woman from Tunisia, who identified herself only as Buthaina out of concern for her and her family's security, said she has been in the camp for nine years.

"Life is not only about eating, drinking, or sleeping. We have children who must learn and see the outside world,” she said.

“We are dead in this life, and don’t know who gave us this verdict. I don't know. And there might be more, only God knows what else awaits us."

Buthaina said her husband and son are held in a prison. She said her husband worked in cleaning and did not fight, but her son fought with the extremists.

The camp’s director says the vast majority of people living in Roj come from nearly 50  countries other than Syria or Iraq, with the bulk of them from ex-Soviet Union states.

That is in contrast to al-Hol camp, where most residents are Syrians and Iraqis who can be more easily repatriated.

Other countries have largely been unwilling to take back their citizens. Human rights groups have for years cited poor living conditions and pervasive violence in the camps.

The US military has begun moving male IS detainees from Syrian prisons to detention centres in Iraq, but there is no clear plan for the repatriation of women and children in the camps.

Former Syrian President Bashar Assad was toppled in a lightning rebel offensive in December 2024.

The country's new army is made up of a patchwork of former insurgent groups, many of them with Islamist ideologies.

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa was once linked to al-Qaida. The militant group and IS were rivals and fought for years.

Since becoming president, he has joined the global coalition against IS.