AL ROJ CAMP PICTURES

This is a story about an Australian boy, missing in a Syrian jail

Aminah: He just a beau�ful boy. He's my baby.

Yusuf Zahab - a Sydney school kid plunged into an I-S nightmare

UPSOT: bang bang

Most of the Australians who lived under the Islamic State group and survived its destruc�on have been held without charge or trial since 2019

including children…

UPSOT: (Aminah with kids)

-       Where are you from?

-       KIDS: Australia!

KAMALLE: Yusuf is a child for god's sake. He was a child when it was taken over. He had no agency and he's been le� to rot and disappear

Yusuf became the face and the voice of the ‘lost boys’ of Syria

YUSUF VOICE MESSAGE: I'm Australian. I'm 17

years old. I just got shot by apache. My head's bleeding. I have injured my head and my hand.

He was even reported dead

KAMALLE: We had grieved, the family had grieved

Only Yusuf’s story didn’t end there.

KAMALLE: I hope you find the truth. I hope you find out the story. If he's with us, where is he?

What's his current status? And if he's not with us, what happened to him? We want to know.

TITLE

FINDING YUSUF: PART 1

COLIN DRIVING IN WESTERN SYDNEY

VO:

I’ve come to Western Sydney where Yusuf Zahab grew up and where one member of his extended family has been leading the charge to find him

LOCATION TITLE: Lakemba

Colin and Kamalle at kitchen table

COLIN: Oh look he’s a kid.

KAMALLE: He's a kid here. He's younger. The face pain�ng... any Australian child at the school fate gets their face painted and there he is - happy smiling kid, which is the way I remember him. He's just a happy, smiling kid....

Kamalle Daboussy has not only been pushing for informa�on about Yusuf, he’s been advoca�ng for all the families of Australians stuck in Syria since the fall of the Islamic State Group in 2019

Kamalle: Yes. This shot I know well. That’s when Yusuf’s niece was born. Ah that’s Yusuf’s mum. There’s Yusuf

Yusuf Zahab Bike photo Dress up photos

Photo of Yusuf with other kids School photo

PHOTOS OF YUSUF ON PLANE

Yusuf was an ordinary kid who loved playing dress ups, riding his bike and hanging out with his cousins.

In 2015 he was just setling into Year 7 when he was taken on a family holiday to Lebanon and Turkiye

GFX map

It would turn into a nightmare.

Yusuf’s older brother and sister were already in Syria, living under the Islamic State’s self- declared caliphate.

Kamalle says the family went to the border to try take the sister home, but were instead coerced into IS territory.

Kamalle IV

IS archive

KAMALLE: they did not choose to go. And certainly Yusuf at that age doesn't make a choice to go. He gets taken and that's his story.

Yusuf would spend the next 4 years living under the Islamic State Group

It’s es�mated more than 40,000 foreigners came to join the organisa�on, or live in territory under its rule.

Muhammad and Kaled pics

Amongst them were Yusuf’s much older brothers Muhammad Zahab

And later Kaled Zahab

Muhammad was a senior I-S member and a recruiter.

Kamalle believes that together – Kaled and Muhammed - were responsible for the Zahab family ending up in Syria

GFX family tree

This includes younger brother Yusuf, sister Sumaya, parents Hicham and Aminah and Kaled’s wife – Mariam Deboussy – who is Kamalle’s daughter

Kamalle IV

KAMALLE: Khaled obviously was my son-in-Law. I quite liked him. He was working. He was just a normal boy growing up in Australia. He'd married my daughter. And he's my grandchildren's father. And I try and remember the good and not focus or dwell on the bad, even though clearly we've paid a big price for those bad decisions.

Conflict archive

But by 2018 Muhammad and Kaled Zahab were dead.

A year later, the Islamic State group lost the

batle of Baghouz - their last stronghold – and

the remainder of the Zahab family emerged from the rubble.

Kamalle: So as the fall of Bahouz came, the men were taken at one of the checkpoints. Yusuf was then separated from his mother. Hi smother and his sister were taken ini�ally to Al Hall camp and Yusuf, we didn't know where he was. That's when the search started and began for Yusuf at that stage.

Yusuf, who was now age 15 disappeared into the Kurdish prison system.

Colin: How does a boy go missing?

Kamalle: That's a good ques�on. I went to visit in 2019 and tried with all my networks to find Yusuf. Interna�onal press have been asking for him. Aid agencies have been asking for him. The un special repertoire has been asking about him. He's well known to the Kurds. How they would misplace him, lose him in the system doesn't make any sense to me.

Colin: For lack of informa�on. What does your gut tell you about Yusuf?

Kamalle: My gut tells me that he's no longer with us. But the worst case is that no one's telling us.

PHOTOS OF YUSUF

COLIN: We are going to Syria to look for Yusuf. What are you hoping?

KAMALLE: I hope you find the truth. I hope you find out the story. If he's with us, where is he? What's his current status? And if he's not with us, what happened to him?

KAMALLE: If you were to find Yusuf and you're able to meet with Yusuf, I would want you to tell him two things. His family dearly loves him and he's not forgoten.

Syria GVs

VO:

A�er I cross the Tigris river from Iraq I arrive in

Syria

But this region isn’t ruled from Damascus

Instead, the Kurdish forces that defeated IS s�ll

control this north eastern pocket. They call it Rojava

Local Kurdish journalist Mustafa al-Ali is helping me search for Yusuf

And the first step is to set up a mee�ng with

the SDF – the Syrian Democra�c Forces.

The SDF controls the prisons that hold an es�mated 9,000 men who are Islamic State group suspects

And they control the deten�on camps where approximately 55,000 affiliated family members live.

COLIN: What will it take to find informa�on about him?

MUSTAFA: It's really hard because like we have to speak to a lot of people. We have to speak like to a lot of the officials. So we're going to knock every door. We're going to meet every person that might have the access to Yusuf.

CHECKPOINT

VO:

Recently the Israel-Gaza conflict has led to increased vola�lity in the region with Iran- backed mili�a groups targe�ng US bases.

And I-S sleeper cells are re-emerging, they’ve claimed responsibility for more than 100 atacks in the region since January

SDF checkpoints are everywhere

VOX POP

With checkpoints there is safety. You feel secure, that nothing will happen to you.

When there are no checkpoints, ISIS can come.

Hasakah GVs

VO: In al-Hasakah, Mustafa and I meet with Kurdish authori�es. A mee�ng we’re not allowed to film.

We put forward our request for informa�on on

Yusuf Zahab

Whilst we wait for news, we visit the scene of where Yusuf was last heard from

Strap: Danish Amuda

Title: the commander of SDF special forces

COMMANDER: We are now passing by the prison that was atacked by IS. They exploded two vehicles and one motorbike.

in January 2022, a prison in Hasakah was atacked by I-S militants

COMMANDER: There were lots of dead bodies of IS suicide atackers on this road.

TODAY - THE SPECIAL FORCES COMMANDER WHO LED THE COUNTER ATTACK IS STILL ON HIGH ALERT

COMMANDER: We have a proverb that says: ‘dead bodies may sleep but the enemy will never sleep’

FILE FOOTAGE OF ATTACK

The atack - two years ago - was a brazen atempt by Islamic State group militants to free thousands of prisoners.

As the batle spilled over into neighbouring

suburbs

Inside the prison, detained I-S suspects overpowered their guards and took control

COMMANDER: When IS atacked, they broke all the beds and doors and turned them into swords. We found three heads of our comrades in a pit. their ugly and dirty ways are inhumane.

4 Days into the Siege - Yusuf’s voice emerged from the chaos in the form of a few short

audio messages he managed to send to family on a smuggled phone

GFX

YUSUF VOICE MESSAGE:

My name is Yusuf Zahab, I’m Australian I’m 17 years old

I need help we’re ge�ng hit from every side from the Kurds

I'm very scared. I seen a lot of bodies of kids. Eight and eight years, 10 years, 12 years, my friends got killed here.

Then Yusuf said he’d been badly injured.

I just got shot by apache. My head's bleeding. I

need help please.

Prisoners

He managed to send a grainy photo showing his bandaged head.

His last message sent on Day 6 of the siege indicated that he was about to leave the compound and surrender.

A�er that – silence

A�er the 10 day batle – the SDF reported more than 500 dead, including 121 of their own soldiers.

But although many prisoners reportedly escaped - the SDF would not confirm how many remained unaccounted for

Kamalle IV

Kamalle: Some�me I think in June, the Kurds atended at the camp and basically told his mother that we don't have Yusuf anymore. And what that meant was unclear to her. To me, it wasn't so unclear. They had somebody, they no longer have him. Something's happened to him. And then with that as well, somebody, in the Australian government leaked to the newspapers that they had a report that Yusuf had passed.

SBS News intro

Lakemba mosque aerials

Yusuf Zahab memorial

Janice: An Australian teenager detained in Northeastern Syria has been confirmed dead just months a�er he pleaded with the government for help.

VO: A memorial service for Yusuf was held at

Sydney’s Lakemba Mosque

It was a chance for his extended family to grieve.

 “Yusuf Zahab, I am absolutely devastated with the passing of my blessed nephew”

Lakemba mosque aerials Kamalle IV

VO: But then another twist

KAMALLE: The next bit of informa�on that we received was in July, 2023. A year later, DFAT had asked to speak to the relevant family member that was the contact person for Yusuf's case.

They then showed a video of Yusuf in that, which apparently was dated September 2022.

And in fact the people that turned up with the video couldn't answer any ques�on that came as a result of that video where he was, what his current health was like. Why it taken 10 months for this video apparently to arrive in Australia.

I will say as �me has gone on and the lack of clarity, it has made a bit more cynical about the video itself. But that's my view. I know the family are much more hopeful that it is all true and nothing since has happened to him since that video has come out.

Qamishli GVs

We’ve set up base in the town of Qamishli on the Turkish border

And we’ve just received some unexpected news

Kurdish authori�es have confirmed Yusuf is

alive, in an SDF prison

And I can meet him tomorrow

VO: We aren’t allowed to film at the prison where Yusuf is being held, so he will be brought to meet us, at a secure compound.

He was imprisoned as a child at age 15, but I’ll

be mee�ng a young man – now aged 20.

Colin: Yusuf. Hi, I'm Colin Cosier from SBS Dateline.

Colin: Can you tell me who are you and so your family in Australia can kind of verify that you are who you say you are. Can you tell us a litle bit about yourself?

Yusuf: Okay, my name is Yusuf Hicham Zahab. I used to live in Australia, Sydney, Bankstown. I used to go to a school called Al Noori. My mom's name's Aminah. My dad's name is Hicham. My sister’s name is Sumiyah. I got a brother, two brothers called Muhammed one called Kaled. And yeah.

Colin: You're Yusuf Zahab. Yusuf: Yeah

Colin: Can I ask, what's it like being here today Talking to me, an Australian guy?

Yusuf: Australian? You're Australian?

Colin: I'm Australian. So we're with SBS Dateline programme. Do you remember SBS in Australia?

Yusuf: No

Colin: the channel, the TV sta�on. SBS.

Yusuf: I'm not sure I remember 10 news, nine news. I remember

Colin: the compe�tors. Yusuf - wow

Colin: So we've come here to Syria to try and find you. How are you? Nobody's heard anything about you.

Yusuf: I don't know. I'm �red of course because of prison and that. Tired because it's been five years now. I haven't seen my family, my mother. I went through a lot of stuff, mostly bad. Day and night I'm scared. I'm feeling I'm unsafe.

Colin: Why do you feel unsafe?

Yusuf: Because of what happened to me before in prison. I got tortured before. I got beaten up so much. I got knocked out twice.

Colin: By who?

Yusuf: I don't know, by guards. They were bea�ng us up so much people, blood coming out of 'em. I got knocked out twice from the bea�ng. I got blood coming out of my nose and that my mouth, my lips got ripped from how much they used to beat me up on the head, on my body. I remember starva�on, very hungry. Then a�er that they took me to that place called Hasakah. There they put me with the kids. Over there I was literally-

Colin: So before this you were with men? Yusuf: Yes

Colin: Have Australian authori�es come to meet you here?

Yusuf: Once in 2019 only. They came and asked me a few ques�ons about what’s going on with me. and that’s the last �me I say them.

Colin: What about your father? What news have you heard of him?

Yusuf: I actually dunno nothing about him.

Yusuf: I don't know but I'm really concerned more about my mother now because I don't

know, I just love my mother so much. My sister

too.

Yusuf: I think about 'em day and night. Colin: Tell me about when you le� Sydney?

Yusuf: I was 12 years old. I was in year seven.

What I remember is that we sold our house and we were going to buy another house. What my mother and father told me that we were going on a holiday and they were going to come back, buy the house.

And then from there I didn't understand what was going on un�l the day my mother, father, my brother Khaled was telling me to run and I was crying and I was scared and holding my mom's hand and running. I didn't know what to do.

Colin: Can I just ask, whose idea was that to cross the border into ISIS territory?

Yusuf: I think, I don't know. I'm not sure, but what I saw yanni, what's going on and who's telling my dad and mom to do stuff was my brother Khaled. But I'm actually not sure you should ask my mother and father about that.

Colin: What was life like under the Islamic State?

Yusuf: Mostly at home. My mother bought me a PlaySta�on so I can play on it. I had a laptop, just watch movies on it. never used to go out much because there used to be hi�ngs from planes and that. my mother was always afraid for me to go out and that and I was always afraid to go out because of the noise of the planes is scary.

Colin: I have to ask, when you lived in the caliphate, did you join the Islamic State?

Yusuf: No, I never joined the Islamic State. And I've got asked that so many �mes when I first came to prison, when ASIO saw me un�l now,

and I don't know why they always asked the same ques�on but I haven't joined the Islamic state. I have never went to ISIS- I didn't even come. It wasn't me. I came with my family, Why, why am I in prison? I don't even understand that.

Colin: Did your mom and dad support the Islamic state?

Yusuf: Well, I'm not sure about that. Maybe. I don't know. I actually don't know.

But what I think, it's because of my brothers, because of Khaled, because of Mohamed. It's because of them. That's why my mother, father, me. That's why I think that they got us

here. They got us into all this trouble and that

Colin: There will be people in Australia who are concerned that because of your �me in prison, because you've spent so much �me with so many adult men who were Islamic State fighters, that you will have become radicalised in prison. Is that the case? or what do you say to those concerns?

Yusuf: These adults I was with, I never used to sit with them. I never used to get close to 'em. I used to be scared of them.

Yusuf: I have nothing to do with the Caliphate or I don't know what it's called. ISIS. I just want to be a normal guy, A normal person like everyone else. How they're living their happy lives. I just want to go back and live a happy life too.

Colin: If you could have a message for the Australian government, what would you like to say?

Yusuf: Please take me back home. I really want to go back home, live life again. Con�nue my own studies cause I’m really low in educa�on now. See my family.

Colin: Your family in Australia will be thrilled to hear about you and to see you looking well.

Yusuf: Thank you.

Colin: Kamalle Dabboussy wanted you to know that they love you and they're thinking of you.

Yusuf: Thank you.

Yusuf: Tell him I love him too. And I love them all. And I just want to go back to Australia. I hate all this that is happening to me. I want to see my mother. I think every day like, you are living a normal life. Everyone outside is living a normal life. Just me. I'm through all this shit every day since, I don't know, 10 years now.

Colin: You were just a child.

Yusuf: I don't know. Every �me people come and ask me, you have something to do with ISIS? I tell them no. He comes interrogated me like I got interrogated more than seven �mes. I don't know why. Every �me, no, you have something to do with ISIS. I tell 'em no, I have nothing to do with ISIS. They always put me under pressure.

Yusuf: Tell my family back in Australia I love them all. And please don't forget me here. I'm scared I'm going to die here. So many people died in prison.

Please I just want to go back home…please.

Rojava GVs

VO: Finding missing Australian Yusuf Zahab in north eastern Syria proved to be surprisingly easy.

Could it be that the �ming was right? That the dust has setled since the prison

atack?

At least today I can give his mother some news at Al Roj camp

Colin in car

COLIN: I’m about to meet Yusuf’s mum, to tell her that he’s alive, that we’ve met him. I want to show her this photo of Yusuf

Aminah at Al-Roj

VO: Aminah Zahab has been in deten�on in a makeshi� camp for 5 years, along with her daughter and grandchildren

In 2022, 17 Australians were repatriated from Al Roj camp, including Kamalle’s daughter Mariam

But Aminah along with 41 other Australians are

s�ll wai�ng in deten�on camps

and they’re living in an informa�on black hole

Aminah: This is my tent and you're welcome. Come in.

Colin: Thank you very much.

Colin: Should we have a chat? Where's a good spot to have a chat

Aminah: Wherever you like. What do you think is a good spot?

Colin: Yeah. Set up in here.

Aminah IV

Aminah: Okay. My name's Aminah. I'm from Sydney, New South Wales

Colin: When was the last �me you saw Yusuf?

Aminah: Five years ago.

Colin: And what have you heard from him since?

Aminah: I heard that he died. I didn't want to believe it, but it was confirmed from home, from everywhere, you know. Even officials came here.

And a�er about a year was it, a year? Was told that the government contacted family member

back home. They showed her that it was

confiden�al. No one was a allowed to look at it except her. They showed her a video of Yusuf, And ever since then, I think the family back home are trying so hard to know his whereabouts and the Australian government don’t know his whereabouts. I begged the families back home not to forget about Yusuf. I begged them. I'm begging you not to forget about Yusuf.

Colin: We have some news. We met Yusuf yesterday. He says he loves you. He says he loves you and he hasn't forgoten about you. He thinks about you every day,

Aminah: I really want to hug you. Can I hug you?

Colin: We were allowed to speak to him for an hour.

Aminah: Thank you. Thank you. Colin: He seemed well.

Aminah: Healthy. Are you sure?

Colin: I can show you a photo. I took that photo yesterday.

Aminah: You did something that no one was able to do. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can’t thank you enough.

AMINAH: And I've always hoped that he, he's going to be a tough boy. He's going to go through it and we're going to see each other and we're going to meet each other. And I don't want to meet- just as much as I want to see him here, and I do want to give him a hug. But I always prayed that I'd meet him when we are

leaving and I just hug him and hold his hand and never leave it again.

Child: Hi Australia

Aminah: Where are you from?

Children: Australia

Colin on roo�op

Kamalle in office

There’s one more person I need to talk to.

COLIN: Let’s call Kamalle. KAMALLE: Hi Colin. How are you?

COLIN: I said I'd check in if we had some news. And we do have some news about Yusuf. We met Yusuf in person the other day.

KAMALLE: You've met Yusuf? That is huge. How is he?

COLIN: He he seemed okay. He seemed okay….

COLIN: He told us his name. He told us where he grew up in Sydney and what school he went to. And he told us his whole story from from leaving Sydney un�l today. It's quite a story.

KAMALLE: That's amazing.

COLIN: I, I, I thought you'd like that.

KAMALLE: I love that news. I don't know what else to say…

COLIN: It beggars the ques�on, if it was that easy for an Australian television crew to come and talk to the guy, why were we the first Australians that you said spoken to in five years?

KAMALLE: There's a lot of ques�ons, but that's a very obvious one. I that's I am honestly lost for words at the moment. I'm just so happy that he's alive and I'm so happy for the family as well. What a rollercoaster they've been put through.

COLIN: What really got to him, Kamalle, was your message, your message that the family loves him and hasn't forgoten that really moved him. It really moved him.

KAMALLE: Thank you. Thank you Colin. Okay. Yeah. It's the where to from here, I suppose, is our is our challenge at the moment. Yep, thank you Colin.

COLIN: We have some footage that we can show you. So when you get off this telephone call, you can, You can look at a litle bit of footage of Yusuf.

Kamalle watching footage

UPSOT FROM VIDEO:

Colin; Kamalle Dabboussy wanted you to know that they they love you and they're thinking of you.

YUSUF: Thank you…

Kamalle calls family

KAMALLE: Guys, I've just got off the phone with Colin in Syria. They have met and interviewed Yusuf yesterday their �me.

It’s the first �me he’s spoken to any Australian in 5 years.

Upsot: Oh habibi

KAMALLE: And they're going to share some more informa�on with us as soon as they can.

Dateline contacted the Ministers' offices at Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, and the Prime Minister and Cabinet with ques�ons about Yusuf Zahab. They did not respond to our ques�ons.

SDF Officials deny Yusuf was tortured.

They say they’re doing their best to provide medical help to prisoners, including dangerous IS suspects.

NEXT WEEK TEASE

NEXT WEEK on Dateline Yusuf’s story

con�nues...

Colin: If you could see Yusuf, what would you say to him?

Hicham: I'm sorry, I want say sorry to him

Will more Australian boys follow Yusuf into the

prison system?

Zahra: If they take them away from me, I might never see them again. I don’t know what they’ll do to them.

Is repatria�on of I-S suspects and their families

too poli�cally controversial.

Kamalle: We need to go down and kick down the doors of parliament. We need to get their aten�on.

FIONNULA: The basic rule of interna�onal laws is each country is responsible for its own.

Colin: Why do you think you’ve been le� here?

Yusuf: I don't know why. That's the ques�on I wish to ask you.

Yusuf school photo

PRISON CCTV VISION (WATERMARK:

YPG SDF Press Centre)

This is a story about an Australian school boy

Who disappeared into the Syrian prison

system a�er the fall of IS

Last week on Dateline, we found Yusuf Zahab

YUSUF: “Australian? you’re …Australian?

And heard his story…

YUSUF: I want to see my mother. And I just want to go back to Australia

Yusuf was sent to a men’s prison at age 15

YUSUF: I got beaten up so much. I’m scared I’m going to die here, so many people died in prison

For the past 5 years family back in Australia have been desperately searching for news....

COLIN: why were we the first Australians that you said spoken to in five years?

KAMALLE: There's a lot of ques�ons, but that's a very obvious one

He’s been held without charge or trial – just like most of the Australians who lived under I-S – including children

Upsot – Where are you from?

KIDS: Australia

who could end up in prison just like Yusuf?

Zahra: If they take them away from me, I might never see them again. I don't know what they'll do to them.

Will Australia bring them home?

SUSSAN LEY: “It’s not a ques�on of compassion it’s a ques�on of keeping Australians safe” [Strap: 2022]

FIONNULA: The basic rule of interna�onal law is each country is responsible for its own. You don't shed your na�onals like debris and have other countries be responsible for them.

TITLE

Finding Yusuf: Part 2

STRAP: Colin Cosier Reporter

I’m en-route to Al-Roj, one of the deten�on

centres in North-eastern Syria.

The camp holds thousands of women and children who once lived under the Islamic State Group’s caliphate.

The region is currently run by the US backed

Syrian Democra�c Forces, or SDF.

They’re the Kurdish-led mili�a that defeated I- S

But this morning, their enemies have just struck

Driving past the strike

Mustafa: So this was a Turkish drone targeted one of the cars in the town.

Mustafa: they hit this car and as far as I knew that three cars have been targeted this morning.

Turkish drone strikes

Recently, there have been hundreds of drone strikes

Turkiye says it’s targe�ng militants associated

with the Kurdistan workers Party or PKK.

The SDF say they are not associated with the PKK and the airstrikes are targe�ng infrastructure, their officials and destabilising the region.

As crowds gather, someone no�ces the drone

is back.

driver: Drone!

Colin: What’s that Jonny?

Jonny: There's a drone. There is a drone above

us.

Mustafa: Let's get out from the car.

driver: Without camera. Mustafa: Let’s get out guys

Colin: So why without the camera?

Mustafa: Yeah, because if they see the camera, I mean they might target that. They might target the car.

Colin: Sure. Alright ge�ng out.

PTC

Colin: So we've just had to get out of our vehicle and our vehicle's actually just le�.

because our driver was very worried. He said that a local journalist who filmed a drone strike recently was then killed in a drone strike on his vehicle. So he understandably wants us to get out of here because I had my camera.

Damaged vehicle

Mustafa: Yeah, I think let's move.

We're good. Let's go back in the car. Different

car. Yeah?

Mustafa: Yeah, yeah.

When I arrive at Al-Roj camp everyone is anxious about the strikes…

For the 34 Australians here in the camp, it’s a reminder that they’re stuck in a hos�le environment.

Zahra: we were a bit worried. We heard a bomb about 10 minutes ago, so we were freaking out.

We thought, are they s�ll coming in? Are they

going to come in? We're glad that you guys came through.

Colin : What happened? What did you hear? Zahra: Just a really loud explosion.

the situa�on's only ge�ng worse. We're in such

a difficult regionally everything. It's such a difficult area to be in and the situa�ons only deteriora�ng internally.

Zahra and children

In late 2022, the Albanese government

repatriated 17 women and children.

But over a year later the remaining Australian women are confused and scared as to why they’re s�ll here.

Zahra Ahmed in a mum of 3 boys

Zahra teaching the kids.

SUPER: Zahra Ahmad

Upsot teaching: Wri�ng Mummy...

Zahra’s family makes up the largest group in al- Roj.

Her mother is here and so are her three sisters. For Zahra, the longer she waits for news of

repatria�on the more dangerous it is for her family

Zahra: the children here, the big boys, are poten�ally at risk of being taken away from mom. It has happened. and it's very, very, very scary. I can't explain to you the amount of fear that we feel, the amount of anxiety that we feel constantly.

UN experts says that adolescent boys are separated from their mothers on the Kurdish authori�es’ belief that they pose a security risk

Colin: Do they know the story of Yusuf? Zahra: Yes. They're aware of Yusuf's story.

They're very scared. They're very scared that

that might happen to them, especially since

Yusef was 15 when he was taken away from mom, and Mohammed is 12 now.

Kids play football

Z – how many 3’s go into 16

M – 2 remainder 1 no 5 remainder 1 C – Do you remember school

Z – He has never been to school

C – How come he has never been to school?

Z – because he was only 2 when he le�

Australia

Zahra: All I want to do is save them from the trauma and save them. So I will just kind of make it like everything's fine, mom, no worries. Everything's good. Even if it's not good for me, put on a brave face. It's okay because I remember even me growing up, if mom and dad are good, I'm good.

Colin: What's happening to you inside? Zahra: Inside? Sorry.

Colin: Can't be easy here.

Zahra: If they take them away from me, I might never see them again. I don't know what they'll do to them. And I can't have that happen to my kids. They're innocent. They haven't done anything wrong. I don't believe they should be punished for something that they don't even have anything to do with.

Zahra says, Australian authori�es came to the camp in 2022 to process travel documenta�on for the women and children.

They thought they would all be leaving…

Zahra: You know, it gave us a bit of light. Then they took the first group and then we were s�ll holding onto maybe every car we would here would say, oh, maybe they're here to come take us. It's our turn. And the kids every day had their shoes ready on the door, had their clothes

ready to get dressed to go, had their bags ready.

Colin: I have to ask, are you a security concern if

you go back to Australia?

Zahra: You can ask anybody about the Australians in the camp, from the military intelligence to the soldiers, to the shopkeepers, to the organisa�ons. They always say the Australians are the one group that are just outstanding.

Colin: The Australian public won't really get the chance to ask the Kurds here, but they will think that you've been locked up here alongside ISIS supporters.

Zahra: Of course, and I understand that, and I think I would have the same concern if I was back home. But what I would like to say is don't be so quick to judge. Try and look at it from our perspec�ve. We are also mothers. We're human beings at the end of the day, we are- I mean, the fact that we are saying that we are willing to comply to whatever the government wants. We are not hiding.

Colin: You'll o�en hear in Australia ‘you made this bed, you can sleep in it’. What do you say to that comment?

Zahra: I didn't make this bed, so I'm not going to answer that. Because for me, that doesn't apply. Most of the women in the camp doesn't apply.

Colin: What do you mean by that?

Zahra: I mean that we are now forced to suffer for the decisions that other people, other male influencers have made on our behalf, and now they're all gone and we are le� to suffer with our kids.

It’s es�mated around 200 Australians travelled to Syria and Iraq to join IS, or live in territory under its control.

Yusuf’s mother Aminah – blames her two older

sons for coercing the family to Syria.

Aminah IV

Aminah: So it was the boys

Colin: Your sons? Mohammed and Khaled?

Aminah: Yes, Mohamed and Khaled. It was the boys.

Aminah: We were trafficked. We were tricked into coming in here. We didn't come here because on our own two feet because we wanted to. I've come to a conclusion. I really, really feel that they were brainwashed somehow.

Aminah: And Yusuf is his own story. He's not his brothers. He's someone completely different.

Kid at camp: Thank you for coming here.

And while many men died during the war – including Yusuf’s older brothers, By our count, only around 13 Australian men are here in prison.

The head of Yusuf’s house was his father, Hicham

He was reported to have died from

Tuberculosis In prison.

Colin: Hi Hicham. Hicham: Yeah.

This is the first �me Hicham Zahab has been

publicly seen in four and a half years

Colin: I'm Colin Cosier from Australia. I'm Australia. I'm from the programme Dateline on SBS television. Tell me who you are.

Hicham: My name Hicham Zahab, I'm from

Australia, Sydney,

Colin: Are you okay to do this interview? Hicham: Yeah, I try.

Colin: When was the last �me you saw your

family?

Hicham: Five years ago they le� and I give up myself. And I have a son. He was 14 years old. He's in the jail and somewhere, I don't know. I asked to meet him. They never let me. So we separated five years. I don't know if he's s�ll alive or he's dead.

Colin: we have met Yusuf on this trip. Hicham: You met him?

Colin: We met Yusuf. We spoke to him like we're speaking to you now.

Hicham: How is he?

Colin: He seems okay. He seems okay considering. He said that he misses his family and he misses Australia.

Hicham: I miss him too and I miss Australia too.

Colin: Are you okay today? You look, look cold like you're shaking.

Hicham: Cause when I come here my heart bea�ng a lot so I have pressure on my chest that's all.

Colin: Are you okay? Do you want a drink?

Hicham: I'm fine. They gave me some water.

Colin: What did you think was happening when you came here today?

Hicham: I don't know. It's been, I've been through a lot. I'm scared maybe they're going to beat me

Colin: Have you been charged with anything? Hicham: No, they not charge me or anything.

Colin: What do you understand about why you are here?

Hicham: I understand because I come to Syria. The reason I come to Syria to take my sons back to Australia and I couldn't make it so I stuck in this quicksand

Family tree gfx

HICHAM AND AMINAH HAD TWO OLDER SONS, A DAUGHTER, and YUSUF.

MUHAMMAD WAS A SENIOR I-S MEMBER AND ALREADY IN SYRIA

SUMAYA HAD BEEN THERE SINCE 2014

It’s alleged that in 2015, the rest of the family

went to the border to try to rescue Sumaya

But Aminah says Kaled tricked the family, and

trafficked them across the border

Yusuf backs this up, saying Kaled was responsible

But HICHAM’S STORY DOESN’T QUITE MATCH

UP

Colin: You went from Lebanon to Turkiye with Khaled, yes?

Hicham: Yes. True.

Colin: Did he trick you into crossing the border or, why did you cross the border?

Hicham: He wanted to meet his brother too. He wanted convince him to come back Australia too.

Colin: Was Khaled at that point a member of the Islamic state?

Hicham: No.

Colin: I understand why you would want to get your son and your daughter back. It doesn't make sense though why you would take your wife and young child into Syria to try and convince them. It wouldn't be safe.

Hicham: When we call them they say safe. You can go inside and go out, it's easy. What they tell us.

Colin: And you believed them? Hicham: I believe.

Colin: How do you feel towards your sons now?

Mohammed and Khaled?

Hicham: May Allah forgive them. That's what I

say.

Colin: Were you or are you a member of the Islamic State?

Hicham: No.

Colin: Was Yusuf a member of the Islamic state?

Hicham: No. He was just very young. He never-

Colin: Did his brothers radicalise him? Did they brainwash him to become part of the Islamic State?

Hicham: They try, but he always was with me. Colin: Who do you think is responsible for you

and your family being in this posi�on?

Hicham: Me. I put it in my, I'm responsible. Because I'm the oldest and I'm the man of the family.

Colin: If you could see Yusuf, what would you say to him?

Hicham: I'm sorry, I want say sorry to him because he's been through a lot and he was so young to be in the jail.

Hicham: I'm gonna lost my mind If something

happened to him.

Colin: He's okay. We spoke to him. He's 20 now. Hicham: He's 20. He's a man.

Colin: Do you s�ll have hope?

Hicham: Yeah… I hope… government of

Australia to take us back. That's what I hope.

I come away from mee�ng Hicham with more ques�ons than I went in with

Was the family coerced by the sons into entering Syria?

Or was Hicham in on the plan all along? I don’t think I’ll find out here.

GFX

In 2015, the Australian Federal Police used

‘proceeds of crime’ legisla�on to

freeze Zahab family assets in Australia – claiming some the funds from the sale of their western Sydney home were des�ned for I-S

Court documents named Hicham, Aminah, and their son Muhammad.

In early 2017 it was reported that Kuwai� authori�es charged Hicham with financing terrorism, money laundering, and joining a terrorist organisa�on.

But Yusuf doesn’t think his parents are to blame

Yusuf: I always say my mind is because of my brothers, not because of my mother and father. Because what I saw, my mother and father

before in Australia just wanted to sell the house

and buy a new house and live life again. But just

a smaller house.

Colin: Why do you think you've been le� here? Yusuf: I don't know why. That's the ques�on I

wish to ask you. I don't know why. I actually

don't know why I'm here. I'm five years now. I don't know why. I don't know because they claimed that I'm dead outside. I don't know even why.

I wasn’t able to see the condi�ons that Yusuf

and Hicham are held in

But in July last year, then U-N special rapporteur for human rights and counterterrorism visited several prisons and camps.

She wrote a report on what she found.

SUPER: Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Former UN Special Rapporteur

FIONNUALA: I think the report is damning.

FIONNUALA: if you're going to hold somebody, if you're going to deprive them of their liberty, if you're not going to allow someone to leave a place of deten�on like a prison or a camp, you have to have a legal basis to do it. Not a single Australian who's being held in northeast Syria has had access to any legal process, zero legal process, zero legal process. And so we use that term mass arbitrary deten�on to describe this kind of gross human rights viola�on.

COLIN: What sort of viola�ons are you talking

about?

FIONNUALA: Australian women and men, are subject to the most egregious harms under interna�onal law, which includes torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, which has included sexualized violence and which has included the poten�al of war crimes being commited

COLIN: They’re Australian ci�zens but they’re being held by Kurdish authori�es in Syria. Who’s responsible in this situa�on?

FIONNUALA: The basic rule of interna�onal law is each country is responsible for its own. You don't shed your na�onals like debris and have other countries be responsible for them. And what that means is you bring them back, apply the full force of the law to them. And to be clear, for Australian men or women who have commited crimes in northeast Syria, they should be prosecuted, because the vic�ms of terrorism have a right to those prosecu�ons, but they're never going to be prosecuted in northeast Syria.

COLIN: why do you think countries are leaving their ci�zens here?

FIONNUALA: well, I would start by saying there's a whole bunch of foreign na�ons who haven't and who are working really hard to bring them back. And it's deeply regre�ul that Australia has not found the poli�cal and social capacity to make the hard decisions. And so I think it boils down to poli�cal will.

FIONNUALA: the report is really clear that states who refuse to bring their na�onals home, given all of the evidence of the scale and systema�sa�on of this abhorrent treatment, are in breach of their interna�onal human rights obliga�ons, including the government of Australia.

SDF pictures from check point film

Fionnuala commends the Kurdish authori�es for giving her access to the prisons and camps– knowing full well her report would be damning

The local autonomous administra�on admits

there are problems.

SUPER: Badran Çiya Kurd

Dept. External Rela�ons, AANES

BADRAN: we say this openly, the condi�ons of the camps, the rehabilita�on centres, deten�on centers, their situa�on is not as desired and we are not sa�sfied with it as well. There is a real need for new places, bigger places, to be created, but the Administra�on does not have that ability.

Colin: do you feel abandoned by the interna�onal community and being burdened with the responsibility of looking a�er so many foreigners?

Badran: Their stance is weak, inadequate and harsh. Pu�ng all the burden on the Autonomous Administra�on. This allows IS to take advantage of this weak policy again, strengthen themselves, organise themselves.

When IS gets stronger here, know that it poses a threat to the security of the world.

Armoured car at Hasakah prison.

The Autonomous Administra�on of north and east Syria wants to focus on figh�ng the remnants of I-S and dealing with Turkish drone strikes - not looking a�er foreigners.

So the message to the interna�onal

community is….

BADRN: either assist the Autonomous- Administra�on or take your ci�zens, and nothing has been done about these two problems.

Coming up

Does Australia want its ci�zens back?

Kamalle: We need to go down and kick down the doors of parliament. We need to get their aten�on.

What responsibility does the Australian

government have to advocate on his behalf?

Australiana pics

A�er travelling to Syria and Mee�ng Yusuf and

his family, I’m s�ll le� with many ques�ons

about why 55 Australian Ci�zens have been le� behind.

In late 2022, the government repatriated 4 women and 13 children from Syria.

Kamalle Dabboussy’s daughter and grandchildren were among those brought

back.

Kamalle: Look, they're doing well. Kids are at school.

Kamalle: Maryam cooperated with authori�es on return. She's free to get on with life. There is check-ins and discussions that happen, but there's been nothing, no legal impediment, no charges, nothing's been put to her at all.

STRAP: Al-Hol camp, Syria

2009

STRAP: Sydney 2022

Of the four women that were repatriated, only one has been charged with WILLINGLY entering Syria

And while his own daughter is now back, Kamalle remains as the spokesperson for the families in Syria who are wai�ng to be repatriated.

Kamalle: So I think Australia and the UK two holdouts as far as repatria�on goes, America took their ci�zens out some �me ago. It has stalled I think basically for the op�cs of it, for the poli�cs of it. They are afraid of the poli�cal point scoring that might come by the opposi�on, by them doing this

When in opposi�on, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signalled that repatria�on was the right thing to do:

STRAP: 26 October 2019

ALBO: Children who are Australian ci�zens, who have made no choices about where they are and the circumstances in which they find themselves, are deserving of Australia's protec�on

Three years later, his government acted

But the news was met with angry reac�ons from some in Sydney’s Assyrian community who’d fled from IS

STRAP: 25 November 2022

ALICE MARZA voxpop ...we run away from them

because they hurt and demolish our country.

STRAP: 9 November 2022

VOX (ARABIC, burnt in subs): the Australian

government shouldn't let ISIS live here,

Some news outlets labelled the returning

women as “ISIS brides”

STRAP: 6 October 2022

KENNY: That is the ISIS brides from Syria and the

42 children that they’ve got with them.

STRAP: 4 November 2022

BERNARDI: The ISIS brides are in our community. Not just that but they’re actually in

our parks, and they’re in our MacDonalds

While the government and the opposi�on

exchanged public blows

STRAP: 2 October 2022

SUPER: Sussan Ley, Opposi�on deputy

leader

SUSSAN LEY: this is not a ques�on of compassion, it’s a ques�on of keeping Australians safe

STRAP: 25 November 2022 SUPER: Clare O’Neil, Home Affairs Minister

O’NEIL: one of the things that needs to be understood here is that these are Australian ci�zens.

STRAP: 9 October 2022

SUPER: Peter Duton, Opposi�on

Leader

DUTTON: if we think the threat has gone away, that people wouldn't act out, there could be an explosion in our country, that is incredibly naïve

STRAP: 6 January 2023

SUPER: Bill Shorten, Government Services Minister

BILL SHORTEN: There’s been no sugges�on that anyone that’s come back here has is causing any threat to safety.

Kamalle: the poli�cal point scoring I think became very loud and it's what spooked the government I think in effect

Colin: So when your daughter and the others were brought back, was the expecta�on at the

�me that everybody would be out that more

would follow?

Kamalle: Yes, That was very clear. The expecta�on at that point in �me.

they were planning on the others almost immediately or within a mater of weeks and it stopped.

Last year, Save The Children Australia brought a case to the Federal Court to compel the government to repatriate the remaining Australian women and children.