Precis

A grandmother's desperate journey to rescue her children and bring them home.

"Just because their last name is Sharrouf, [it] doesn't mean they are monsters." Karen Nettleton.

On Monday Four Corners exclusively brings you the story of the Sharrouf children and their grandmother's epic fight to find them and bring them home to Australia.

"I'd never thought I'd be in this situation ever. I mean trying to get children out of Syria. I'm just a grandma from the suburbs." Karen Nettleton.

If there was one family that represented the alarming tide of Australians flocking to the black flag of Islamic State, it was the Sharroufs. The children of the notorious jihadist Khaled Sharrouf were taken to the self-declared caliphate in 2014. The world learned of them after their father published pictures of his eldest son holding the severed head of an IS prisoner, sending shockwaves around the world.

"This image... is really one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed - of a seven-year-old child holding a severed head up with pride and with the support and encouragement of a parent." Then US Secretary of State, John Kerry.

For five years their grandmother, Karen Nettleton, has been trying to reach the children and bring them home.

"She is not going to give up. She once said 'Don't underestimate this nanna'. And sure as day follows night, no matter how depressed and upset she is, she picks herself up." Robert Van Aalst, lawyer.

She has mounted several rescue missions, with each one ending in failure. Now, in Syria, she's making a last-ditch effort to save them from a squalid refugee camp.

"I just hope today is the day I get them. If not, I will try again tomorrow and the next day because I'm not going home without them." Karen Nettleton.

Reporter Dylan Welch and producer Suzanne Dredge have documented the family's experience for four years, travelling with the children's grandmother as she tries to convince the authorities in Syria and Australia to release the family into her care and allow them to return home.

"Are my children a risk to Australia? Absolutely not, absolutely not. No way."

What happened to this family over the years they lived in the IS caliphate has remained untold. Now on Four Corners, you will see and hear their story.

Program intro. Four Corners animated logo

Series music

00:00

Plane take off

00:11

Karen walking to departures at airport

DYLAN WELCH, REPORTER: Sydney grandmother Karen Nettleton is heading overseas hoping to see her grandchildren.   If it happens, it’ll be no ordinary family reunion.

00:18

KAREN NETTLETON: I need to have my children back. They deserve to come back here. They deserve to be here and happy and safe

00:31

Karen 100%

and have food and be able to walk down the street, be normal.

00:38

Karen at check-in

DYLAN WELCH, REPORTER: Karen’s three grandchildren and two great grandchildren have spent the past five years living under the brutal rule of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

00:43

They’re the children of the notorious jihadist Khaled Sharrouf and his wife Tara.

00:53

Airport queues

KAREN NETTLETON:  Well, I actually wanted the government to bring them home, but they say they can't. So, I'm going to get them

01:02

CU Karen at check-in

and make my way to the refugee camp,

01:11

Karen 100%

knock on the door and say, ‘I'm Karen Nettleton, I'm the grandmother of the Sharrouf children, here are all the documents, I would like to take them home.’

01:14

Tattoo on Karen's arm/Karen on plane

DYLAN WELCH: Karen is flying into Iraq and from there hopes to cross the border into Syria

01:27

KAREN NETTLETON: I just don’t know what to expect – I just, I don’t know, it’s a bit all unknown and scary, really.

01:34

Women at fence in camp. Karen enters camp

01:44

WOMAN: Go inside, you have to see more than this, go inside.

01:57

Karen in camp calling for children

KAREN NETTLETON: Australian? Zaynab Sharrouf! I’m her grandma. I’m trying to find her. Zaynab Sharrouf. Zaynab, Hoda Sharrouf!

02:00

DYLAN WELCH: Tonight, Four Corners follows a grandmother’s desperate mission to save her family and bring them home.

KAREN NETTLETON: Zaynab Sharrouf!

02:16

GFX Title over shot of camp:
ORPHANS of ISIS
REPORTER   DYLAN WELCH
PRODUCER  SUZANNE DREDGE

Music

02:26

Stills. Karen with young Tara

Music

02:39

DYLAN WELCH: Karen Nettleton often wonders why her family’s simple suburban life took such a drastic turn.

02:46

DYLAN WELCH: Karen raised her only child, Tara, as a single mother in western Sydney.

02:53

KAREN NETTLETON: It was a pretty fun childhood. She had a horse that we kept at Scenic Hills. She had lots of friends.

03:00

Karen 100%

We’d got to the pool, parks. She played tennis.

03:08

Stills. Karen with teenage Tara

DYLAN WELCH: At 15 Tara dropped out of Chester Hill High School, moved out of her mother’s house, and out of contact. One month later they arranged to meet at Manly in Sydney.

KAREN NETTLETON: I met them at the wharf.

03:11

Karen 100%. Super:
KAREN NETTLETON

And when she came out, she had her Muslim clothes on. A hijab and the long dress. Tara told me that she'd converted to Islam. And I could, I knew that because of how she was dressed. And that she was married to Khaled and she was having a baby.

03:26

DYLAN WELCH: It must have been quite a shock.

03:46

KAREN NETTLETON: It was. It was. But what could I do? She loved him. And if I wanted any sort of relationship with my daughter, I had to accept it all.

03:48

Still. Khaled

DYLAN WELCH: The father to be was 17-year-old labourer Khaled Sharrouf, who had a history of drug abuse and undiagnosed mental illness.
"If you knew then what you know now,

04:08

Karen 100%

would you have behaved differently at that meeting?"

KAREN NETTLETON: That's a tough one to answer. Well, the end result would be, she'd still be alive.

04:22

Home video. Karen with Zaynab and Hoda

KAREN: Good girls. That's it. Ok, Nan’s having a rest now.

04:31

Home video. Karen at play house in back yard

KAREN:  Hello girls.

DYLAN WELCH: The Sharroufs had five children.

04:44

Home videos. Sharrouf children with Karen

Zaynab was first born followed closely by Hoda, Abdullah, Zarqawi and Humzeh. Karen doted on them.

04:51

KAREN: Abdullah. Who’s a pretty boy?

05:02

KAREN NETTLETON: Well Zaynab was the princess. Hoda was the sensitive one.

05:11

Abdullah was -

05:19

Karen 100%

Abdullah. And Zarqawi was the naughty corner boy.

05:21

Home video. Karen with Sharrouf child on bike

KAREN: Pedal hard, pedal hard. Keep pedalling.

KAREN: And Humzeh was just the baby corn. Idolised by everyone.

KAREN: Oh my god Humzeh. Woo hoo!

05:29

Home video. Karen with child on waterslide/on roundabout

KAREN NETTLETON: There was a lot of happy moments. Holidays, just going to the pool with them.

05:41

Karen 100%

Going to the park. Teaching them to ride their bikes, teaching them to swim, there was a lot, lots. Lots and lots of happy times.

05:55

Still. Khaled and Tara

DYLAN WELCH: As a mother, you must have formed some kind of a picture in your head of Tara's life with Khaled.

KAREN NETTLETON: In my head, I just thought it was a bit restrictive. Like from an outsider looking in. But it's the way of life for them and she was quite happy to

06:07

Karen 100%

wear what she wore, go into a different room if there was people over, or if his brothers came over. You know, and she was quite happy with her life.

06:23

Archival. World Trade Center attack

Music

06:34

DYLAN WELCH:  Zaynab was born in 2001, the year that changed the world.

06:46

Archival. Abdul Nacer Benbrika

Her father was mixing with hard-line extremists, including notorious Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika, who stayed at Sharrouf's house when visiting Sydney.

06:54

ABDUL NACER BENBRIKA: Osama bin Laden – he’s a great man.

07:05

KAREN NETTLETON: One of the men that came was Abdul Nacer Benbrika. And the girls were a bit in awe of him.

07:09

Karen 100%

And they said that he was their sheik. And, me being me, just said, “What, Shrek?”

07:20

Archival. Counter-terrorism raid. Super:
November 2005

07:30

NEWSREADER: In the early hours of this morning more than 400 police raided homes in south west Sydney as part of Australia’s biggest counter-terrorism operation.

07:33

Sharrouf in prison

DYLAN WELCH: In 2005, Sharrouf was arrested in Sydney and pleaded guilty to preparing for a terrorist act. He served four years in prison.

07:44

Moroney 100%. Super/s:
-Four Corners, November 2014
-DETECTIVE PETER MORONEY
Operation Pendennis

DETECTIVE PETER MORONEY, OPERATION PENDENNIS: These guys their view was jihad, was to kill. That was that simple. It was to kill in God’s name or in Allah’s name –that was it.

07:55

Sharrouf in prison

KAREN NETTLETON: I just couldn't imagine that he would have anything to do with

08:02

Karen 100%

a terrorism attack on Australia. He just didn't give off that vibe that he was so extreme to do something like that.

08:09

Sydney protest against film

[CHANTING]

08:18

DYLAN WELCH: In 2012 Khaled Sharrouf was centre stage in Sydney protesting against a film that they said insulted the prophet. Also, there was his friend Mohamed Elomar.

08:32

Sydney Airport ext and check-in GVs

A year later Sharrouf using his brother’s passport left Australia to join Islamic State along with Elomar.

KAREN NETTLETON: I didn't know anything about ISIS, not at all.

08:47

Karen 100%

The first I heard about ISIS was from the TV, when they started putting the name ISIS out there and the black flag and the number one.

09:01

Still. Tara in Malaysia

DYLAN WELCH: In early 2014, Karen and Tara went on a holiday to Malaysia. Tara then went with her children on to Turkey but never came home.

09:15

Karen 100%

DYLAN WELCH: Can you describe for me that farewell in Malaysia?

KAREN NETTLETON: Oh, it was very sad. I kissed the kids, kissed their faces, hugged them, kissed them again, hugged Tara, kissed her and walked out and left them there, but I didn't know I was saying goodbye to Tara, to Abdullah, and to Zarqawi when I did that. If I knew, I don't know if I would've gone.

09:26

Still. Sharrouf children

DYLAN WELCH: Can you describe for me the moment that you realised your family was in Syria? How did you find out?

KAREN NETTLETON: My granddaughter sent a

09:55

Karen 100%

picture of her and her brother, and she still had the location services on, and it came up, Raqqa, Syria, for where the photo originated from.

10:05

Aerial. Raqqa

Music

10:17

Shots of bombed Raqqa

DYLAN WELCH: The city of Raqqa became the self-declared capital of the new Islamic State caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

10:24

Former Raqqa Sharrouf house

The Sharroufs lived in this house before the city was destroyed by coalition air strikes. From amid the chaos, Tara and the children managed to make contact with their grandma.

10:31

GFX On screen text:
‘Hello nana just wanted to tell u that I love you and miss you. Mum says to tell u we r safe. She loves you and misses u heaps.’

(VOICE READING TEXT MESSAGE): ‘Hello nana, just wanted to tell you that I love you and miss you. Mum says to tell you we are safe. She loves you and misses you heaps.’

10:44

Stills. Sharrouf boys

DYLAN WELCH: The two eldest boys, Abdullah and Zarqawi, began attending ISIS camps.

KAREN NETTLETON: I don't know why anybody would want to

10:53

Karen 100%

train little boys to fight. I just thought they were camps like, you know, like manning up camps, because it's not as if they play with toys at that age there. You know, if they were at home, sure.

11:02

Stills.  Sharrouf boys posing with guns

DYLAN WELCH: You’ve got quite a few photos of them and you began to see I think things that you wouldn't see in Australia in those photos?

KAREN NETTLETON: Oh my god, guns leaning up against the wall in photos and

11:16

Karen 100%

ammunition and that was a shock to me to see things like that in pictures. And it just really stuck out. Like I'd get a picture of the kids sitting on the couch and behind them --because it was a new couch -- behind them here is this like automatic weapon. That just doesn't happen in my world.

11:29

Still. Child holding a man's severed head. Super:
August 2014

DYLAN WELCH: There was worse to come. A child purported to be the son of Australian Islamic State terrorist Khaled Sharrouf, holding a man’s severed head.

JOHN KERRY, FORMER US SECRETARY OF STATE: This image, perhaps even an iconic photograph,

11:58

Archival. Kerry addressing press. Super:
JOHN KERRY
Former US Secretary of State

is really one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed, of a child holding a severed head up with pride and with the support and encouragement of a parent.

12:19

Dissolve to: Still. Khaled holding severed head. Child holding severed head

KAREN NETTLETON: That was the worst picture I’ve ever seen.

12:37

Karen 100%

I can’t imagine somebody doing something like that to someone else and then holding it up as a trophy, like that’s just wrong. And I was so angry about that picture because it’s going to follow him everywhere for the rest of his life. It’s always going to be there. Whenever you Google the name Sharrouf, that picture comes up. Anytime there’s an article about them in the paper, that picture’s used.

12:50

Stills. Elomar posing with guns.

DYLAN WELCH: A year after arriving Khaled Sharrouf arranged for his eldest daughter, thirteen-year-old Zaynab to marry his friend Mohamed Elomar. Soon after she was pregnant.

13:18

Karen 100%

KAREN NETTLETON: Oh my god, that was just unbelievable. Here is a man as old as her father. And here she is thirteen. My opinion of it was, disgust.

13:31

Airstrike footage

DYLAN WELCH: Three months later Elomar was killed in an airstrike. Early reports said Sharrouf had also died. 

TONY ABBOTT: Both of them were

13:55

Archival. Tony Abbott

terrorists. Both of them are evil.

14:04

Still. Sharrouf and Elomar

JULIE BISHOP: These two men are not martyrs, they are criminal thugs

14:09

Archival. Julie Bishop

who have been carrying out brutal terrorist attacks, putting people’s lives in danger.

14:13

Still. Sharrouf posing with gun

DYLAN WELCH: The reports of Sharrouf’s death were wrong.

14:19

Tara in hospital

In 2015 Tara fell ill with severe stomach pains and was taken to a hospital in Mosul in Iraq.

KAREN NETTLETON: Tara wanted to leave, but Abdullah didn't,

14:24

Karen 100%

and so she couldn't go without her son. She couldn't leave him there. So that stopped one attempt of coming home.

14:38

Still. Tara corpse under sheet

DYLAN WELCH: A few months later Tara died of what was believed to have been a perforated intestine.

14:47

Karen 100%

KAREN NETTLETON: I got a text message, and the text message said that Ayesha had passed, and that was in January.

DYLAN WELCH: Ayesha?

KAREN NETTLETON: That was Tara's Muslim name, Ayesha. And that ... I said, "When did it happen? Why, what are you talking about?”

14:57

And I don't know who it was actually that was texting, I think it might have been Khaled. And she'd died on the 21st of September 2015 and I was told in the January 2016.

15:18

And what Hoda has since told me was that he was carrying her when she was dead, trying to get help for her and screaming at the doctors to do something. And it was the holes in her intestines that killed her, something that could've been treated here at home. I still can't believe I've lost my child.

15:42

Video. Tribute to Tara

16:28

DYLAN WELCH: After her death, Tara’s children made a video tribute of their mother.

16:36

KAREN NETTLETON: I just cried through the whole video. Hoda had made it, and it was just flashes of scenes of everyone. I only watched it once, I can’t watch it again. It's just too sad.

16:43

Karen 100%

It was beautiful and I'm glad she sent it to me, but I can't watch it.

17:02

Karen in car to airport. Greets Robert. Into Departures

Music

17:17

DYLAN WELCH: In early 2016, Karen decided to travel to Turkey to try to rescue her grandchildren accompanied by her lawyer and friend Robert Van Aalst.

17:28

KAREN NETTLETON: I’d never thought I’d be in this situation ever, ever. I mean trying to get children out of Syria. I’m just a grandma from the suburbs.

17:39

Turkey ISIS attacks

[Ambulance siren]

17:51

DYLAN WELCH: Turkey was in the midst of a wave of attacks carried out by ISIS in retaliation for its role in the Syrian war.

17:56

Welch and Van Aalst on street in Turkey after bomb

DYLAN WELCH: Are you okay?

ROBERT VAN AALST, KAREN’S LAWYER AND FRIEND: Yeah, yeah, I was down there when it all started.

DYLAN WELCH: You were what?

ROBERT VAN AALST: I was down there when it all started.

DYLAN WELCH: So what actually happened?

ROBERT VAN AALST: Well, it was a bomb.

18:02

Istanbul GVs

Music

18:09

Karen and Rob in café

DYLAN WELCH: In a café in Istanbul Karen and Rob waited for news of the children. Karen had been trying to send them money so they could escape.

18:16

Karen reacts to text from Zaynab. Robert takes phone from her and reads

KAREN NETTLETON: Oh my god!

DYLAN WELCH: As they waited, Karen received a terrifying text message from Zaynab.

ROBERT VAN AALST: Oh Jesus.

18:24

(Reads text) “Thanks a lot Nana. They just hit the place we were supposed to get the money from. My friends’ husband and Abdullah were there.  I still haven't heard if they're alive or dead. Twelve rockets, it was a setup, they're liars I can't believe this, my god.”

KAREN NETTLETON: What is she saying to me thanks a lot like it's my fault?

18:43

ROBERT VAN AALST: Oh, I don't think that, I don't think so. (Reads text) “I’m shaking I’m so scared.”

19:11

Karen paces

KAREN NETTLETON:  I’ve got to pace. I’ve got to pace.

19:18

Karen reads text

KAREN NETTLETON: (Reads text) “Thanks a lot Nanna”. So, she is saying …

ROBERT VAN AALST: But don’t… You’ve got to ignore that Karen. We have to just keep focused. She’s only a kid. She’s in a terrible situation. She is beside herself with fear and anger. It’s quite normal.

19:42

Robert picks up phone and reads new text

KAREN NETTLETON: I can’t read it, you read it.

ROBERT VAN AALST: Oh no. Oh no.

KAREN NETTLETON: What? Is it Abdullah?

ROBERT VAN AALST: (Shakes head, and murmurs no.)

KAREN NETTLETON: She doesn’t want to come out now does she?

ROBERT VAN AALST: No. She’s not going to contact us anymore.

19:58

Karen in café

KAREN: Thank you Khaled Sharrouf for taking my daughter’s life and my grandkids. I hate him. I hate him so fucking much.

DYLAN WELCH: The rescue mission was a failure and Karen came home without the children.

20:28

NEWS REPORT:  Khaled death
On screen text:
AUSTRALIAN TERRORIST KILLED

NEWS READER: Tonight, Australia’s most infamous terrorist, Khaled Sharrouf, killed in the Middle East.

21:00

PETER DUTTON: Sharrouf and his wife took their children into a war zone and if they have been killed, well what other outcome would they expect? They’re obviously horrible people.

21:06

News report vision continues

NEWS READER: Good evening, Juanita Phillips, with ABC News.

DYLAN WELCH: In August 2017 Sharrouf was killed in an airstrike with his two eldest sons.

21:17

Karen 100%

KAREN NETTLETON: So that was the day I lost Abdullah and Zarqawi. So, the drone had taken out the car, Khaled and the two boys. Why they had to get him when he was with the boys? I’d really like to know why.

21:27

Robert 100%. Super:
ROBERT VAN AALST
Karen's lawyer & friend

ROBERT VAN AALST: My view of Khaled Sharrouf is that he was very a bad person, an evil person. He put himself first before his family, and when I was shown a photo to identify him shortly after they’d been attacked, and the half of his face was blown off, I had no feeling of sadness or remorse other than for the children.

21:55

ISIS flag flying/Allied forces attack

22:37

DYLAN WELCH: Over the next year, US, Iraqi and Kurdish forces waged a fierce offensive to recapture ISIS territory. Karen’s contact with her grandchildren was patchy and sometimes there was no contact for months.

22:45

Women and children flee

Then came a plea from 16-year-old Hoda begging to come home.

23:02

Karen at home preparing for trip, packing suitcase

Late last year Karen decided to mount another rescue mission – this time using smugglers who promised to deliver Hoda safely to Turkey.

23:08

KAREN NETTLETON: What do you pack for a 16-year-old? I’ve no idea. I don’t even know if she’s going to like half this stuff.

23:20

Jeans – can’t go wrong with jeans. I’m trying to pack the least clinging clothes I can think of.

23:35

Karen on plane/Arrival in Turkey

Music

23:53

DYLAN WELCH: We travelled to Turkey with Karen in October 2018.

24:10

Welch knock on Karen's hotel room door

It wasn’t long before the rescue plan derailed.

24:16

Karen and Welch in hotel room

KAREN NETTLETON:  I was told everything’s been called off.

DYLAN WELCH: Oh, man.

KAREN NETTLETON: Because the people who were going to rescue her put the price up by quite a bit, equivalent of about a hundred thousand dollars – Australian.

24:28

How can I tell her they want more money for her? I’ve never told her. She said how much is it costing, and I just said, ‘baby you’re priceless to me.

24:47

Turkey street GVs

DYLAN WELCH: After a day of negotiation Karen was still no closer to getting Hoda out.

24:58

View from hotel room/Karen on phone to Hoda

KAREN NETTLETON: It won’t be long now. Ok? 

HODA SHARROUF: I’m so sick of being here.

KAREN NETTLETON: I know, but it won’t - I promise you it won’t be long.

HODA SHARROUF: I don’t know what to do with myself anymore. I’m scared it’s not going to work, and what am I supposed to do? Every single time I see someone they ask me, ‘Why don’t you want to get married? Do you want to get married’ this and that and they ask me about marriage, and I don’t know what and I can’t just say I don’t even want to be here? I’m, not free to say that here.

25:08

[continues]

KAREN NETTLETON: It’s not going to be long, I promise. We’ll get you out of there.

HODA SHARROUF: Okay, I hope so. I’m sorry.

KAREN NETTLETON: Don’t be, be sorry, don’t you ever be sorry, ever.

HODA SHARROUF: Okay.

KAREN NETTLETON: It’s going to happen and I just-

HODA SHARROUF: I miss you so much.

25:41

Phone call ends abruptly. Karen crying

KAREN NETTLETON: Ah yeah. Oh god. They shut the net off. Oh god. (CRIES)

26:04

DYLAN WELCH: Are you okay?

KAREN NETTLETON: (NODS) Their fuckin’ religion. Fuckin’ religion!

DYLAN WELCH: Once again the rescue mission failed, and Karen came home alone. She had a breakdown and had to spend a fortnight in hospital.

27:00

Women entering camp

By March this year the last ISIS enclave was captured and thousands of ISIS fighters, their wives and children fled. Many of the women and children were rounded up and taken to the al-Hawl refugee camp in Syria. Karen didn’t know if her grandchildren were dead or alive.

27:37

KAREN NETTLETON: I just came out of hospital on the Thursday and

28:00

Karen 100% Super: KAREN NETTLETON

then the Friday night I get a phone call from Hoda telling me she's in the refugee camp, al-Hawl refugee camp. I could not believe it. And then to get the call from Zaynab ... it took a couple of days for Zaynab, because she had to be processed, but getting her call was --being told she was there, to actually hearing her voice, was just -- I just knew they were all safe, they will all be together.

28:03

Aircraft on tarmac.  Karen collecting luggage Super:
26 March 2019

DYLAN WELCH: Three weeks ago, Karen arrived in Erbil in Iraq on her third attempt to rescue the children.

28:41

Karen leaves Erbil airport

KAREN NETTLETON: Might take a few attempts at the camp to get them, but they're Australian citizens, they're orphans.

28:54

Karen 100%

The government should have them on a plane and bring them home.

29:01

Phone showing Zaynab ID/Karen talks with Zaynab

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: Hello Nana.

KAREN NETTLETON: Hello.

DYLAN WELCH: As soon as Karen arrives at her hotel, she calls Zaynab at the refugee camp.

29:05

KAREN NETTLETON: Well I’m in Erbil, we’re just waiting on getting permission to come into Syria, and we’re hoping to get that either tonight or tomorrow.

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: Okay.

KAREN NETTLETON: Yeah, so all things going to plan.

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: (INAUDIBLE)

KAREN NETTLETON: No, all things going to plan we should be there in a few days at the camp.

29:15

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: Okay. I love you.

KAREN NETTLETON: I love you too and I can’t wait to hug you, kiss you, and squeeze you. I am so close baby I’m so close.

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: Love you, bye.

KAREN NETTLETON: Bye-bye, bye.

29:36

Phone showing time: 4:30

[Wake up alarm]

29:54

Karen puts on backpack and collects case and into lift

KAREN NETTLETON: Today is going to be the most exciting day. I’m going to be in the same country as my grandkids, for the first time in five years and two months. So it’s a big day and I’m so excited.

The next step I think is just getting over the border in to get them which will be a bit of a challenge in itself but just a step at a time.

29:59

Karen into car

30:34

GFX Map: Erbil to Qamishli and Al Hawl Refugee camp

DYLAN WELCH: The journey from Erbil to the Syrian border takes two hours and then another three hours to the Kurdish town of Qamishli which is near the al-Hawl refugee camp.

30:52

Karen in car

KAREN NETTLETON: I just hope today is the day I get them.

31:04

If not, I will try again tomorrow, then the next day, because I’m not going home this time without them. Definitely not.

31:07

View from car

31:19

Karen knitting in car

31:22

Views from car

31:26

Karen in car approaching border

KAREN NETTLETON: So just here are the hills of Syria, right. Oh my God we’re nearly there.

31:37

Karen holding passport/Border post

31:48

KAREN NETTLETON: Oh my God no.

DYLAN WELCH: On the approach to the border there’s another delay.

KAREN NETTLETON: Oh god.

32:00

We can’t cross because the water’s too high.

32:13

Karen and others wait at border

DYLAN WELCH: They wait for the water to recede.

32:26

Karen in bus with others

32:39

Tigris river crossing. Karen crying, panicking

As they cross the Tigris River into Syria Karen is having a panic attack.

[Passengers clap]

32:46

Qamishli GVs

DYLAN WELCH: The day ends at the Syrian town of Qamishli, not far from the refugee camp.

33:33

Karen in kitchen reading text from Zaynab

Karen receives a text from Zaynab.

33:38

CU Text.

KAREN NETTLETON: (Reads text) “Please nana try and come tomorrow even if it is raining because we physically and emotionally can’t take this anymore. It’s too hard. I’m crying myself to sleep because this is the first time, I’ve felt like I’m in prison. Please Nana, I beg you, I can’t wait another day. I’m losing my mind.”

33:44

Karen pack case

KAREN NETTLETON: Wipes, soap, head lice. Custody papers, copies of their passports.

DYLAN WELCH: Here you go.

KAREN NETTLETON: Thank you, oh my god.

DYLAN WELCH: Is this the bag that’s going?

KAREN NETTLETON: Yeah just drop the socks off the top.

34:06

Karen into van to travel to camp

DYLAN WELCH: The next day permission is granted to enter the al-Hawl refugee camp.

34:30

Welch and producer in van

Four Corners is travelling with Karen.

34:45

Man travelling with crew

MAN: According to our information, they tell me you are last journalists in there.

DYLAN WELCH: Are you alright?

34:48

Karen in van

KAREN NETTLETON: No.

DYLAN WELCH: Are you -- is it because of the rush this morning?

KAREN NETTLETON: Yes. And just… I don’t cope with pressure.

DYLAN WELCH: Sorry?

KAREN NETTLETON: I can’t cope with pressure, and this is real pressure.

34:59

View of camp from van/Karen takes photos

DYLAN WELCH: More than 70,000 people are living in the camp. It seems like an impossible task to find the children.  

35:22

KAREN NETTLETON: Oh my god.

35:50

Van drives in to camp

35:59

Music

36:29

Karen walks into camp

36:32

WOMAN: Go inside, you have to see more than this, go inside.

36:56

Karen searches for children

KAREN NETTLETON: You know where Australians are? No?

37:03

KAREN NETTLETON: Looking for Australians? Huh? Zaynab Sharrouf.

37:08

KAREN NETTLETON: You know where Australians are?

37:15

Karen approaches woman

KAREN NETTLETON: Australians! Australie? Australian! They’re all running into their tents. It’s going to be impossible. Australians! Australians. Yes, Zaynab, Hoda.

WOMAN: No, I’m not Australian, I’m from Germany.

KAREN NETTLETON: Zaynab, Hoda Sharrouf.

WOMAN: Huh?

KAREN NETTLETON: Sharrouf.

WOMAN: I know there are some Australians around here. But I don’t know where their tent is. Yeah, yeah, I know her. She must be around this area.

37:33

[continues]

KAREN: This end? Oh thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

WOMAN: Yeah, no problem, you’re welcome.

38:06

Karen continues searching

Music

38:12

KAREN NETTLETON: Zaynab Sharrouf! Zaynab Sharrouf! Zaynab Sharrouf!

38:22

Karen with woman

KAREN NETTLETON: This one has her two children, her sister, her brother.

38:44

KAREN NETTLETON: Hoda! Zaynab Sharrouf! Australian! Zaynab Sharrouf. I’m her grandma, I’m trying to find her. Zaynab Sharrouf. Zaynab, Hoda Sharrouf.

38:48

Zaynab, Hoda Sharrouf. [cries]

39:05

Zaynab, Hoda Sharrouf.

DYLAN WELCH: Finally, Karen sees a familiar face.

39:30

Karen runs towards Humzeh and follows him to the rest of the children

KAREN NETTLETON: Humzeh! Oh baby. (CRIES) Oh my baby Corn… (LAUGHS) Where’s your sisters?

HUMZEH SHARROUF: They're here.

KAREN NETTLETON: Where? Oh darling.

39:38

KAREN NETTLETON: Oh my god… Number two, number three… Oh my God. Oh, my babies.

HUMZEH: I’m going to get Zaynab.

40:08

She hugs Hoda

HODA SHARROUF: It’s you.

KAREN NETTLETON: It’s me…Who is this one?

HODA SHARROUF: It’s Hoda… I know. I just need to hug you.

KAREN NETTLETON: I'm here… Oh my baby.

41:04

HODA SHARROUF: I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you.'

KAREN NETTLETON: Oh, Hoda I’m here. I’m here. (CRIES) Oh, my baby I missed you so much too. Oh my God.

HODA SHARROUF: I can’t believe this is happening.

41:36

KAREN NETTLETON: This is surreal, I’m here.

HODA SHARROUF: I cannot believe I’m hugging you. I’m pretty sure I’m dreaming, I’m scared I’m going to wake up.

KAREN NETTLETON: You’re not dreaming. You’re not going to wake up.

HODA SHARROUF: I’m so scared I’m going to wake up.

41:40

KAREN NETTLETON: Where’s Zaynab?

HODA SHARROUF: She’s at the internet she just wants to go speak to you.

41:48

Karen hugging and kissing Hoda

Please don’t leave, please don’t leave.

KAREN NETTLETON: You want me to stay here with you? Until we can?

HODA SHARROUF: Yeah, yeah.

KAREN NETTLETON: Ok.

HODA SHARROUF. Please, that’s better.

KAREN NETTLETON: This is Hoda.

41:53

DYLAN WELCH: Hoda was only eleven when she arrived in Syria.

42:06

Interview with Hoda

SUZANNE DREDGE: Did you know you were coming here Hoda, because you were so young?

HODA SHARROUF: No, I didn’t know I was in Syria until, until after we crossed the borders and I heard people speaking Arabic, so that’s when I was a little bit weirded out. I asked my mum where we were. And she told me we were in Syria. I started crying.

42:11

SUZANNE DREDGE: What did you say to her?

HODA SHARROUF: I told her when the hell are we getting back home.

SUZANNE DREDGE: Did you even know at that point what Syria…?

HODA SHARROUF: I didn’t know what Syria, I didn’t know where we were, actually, in Syria, I just thought we were in Syria, just in Syria, I thought we could get out whenever we wanted to. But you can’t, once you get in you’re stuck.

42:33

Interview continues

PRODUCER SUZANNE DREDGE: Did you ask to come home?

HODA SHARROUF: Yeah… every five seconds.

KAREN NETTLETON:  Mummy was planning that, though wasn’t she?

HODA SHARROUF: Yeah, she was. She promised me, so many times.

KAREN NETTLETON: Yeah, I know.

43:00

PRODUCER SUZANNE DREDGE: What did she say to you?

HODA SHARROUF: She told me I’m gonna get you back home, don’t worry. She kept saying that until, until she died. The last time that she told me that was actually in the hospital. And she told me we really have to get out of here, yeah.

43:14

Hoda and Karen

HODA SHARROUF: I can’t believe you are here. Oh my God.

KAREN NETTLETON: I wasn’t going to give up.

43:39

HODA SHARROUF:  I feel like you are the only thing I have left of my mother. You’re like Mum’s scent. I just wanted to see you again for that like one purpose. It’s been so hard these past five years.

KAREN NETTLETON: I know, baby girl. I know.

HODA SHARROUF: So hard.

43:48

[continues]

KAREN NETTLETON: You’ve been so brave. I don’t know how you’ve done it, I really don't, but you have, and now your life can start all over again. It will be a different life.

44:10

HODA SHARROUF: When do you think we will get back home?

KAREN NETTLETON: When? Well, we’re going to have to go to, probably Turkey first, because we have to get papers for the girls. Zaynab may have to her baby there. It depends on how quickly we get our papers. And then we will be back. And then we will be going back.

HODA SHARROUF: Okay.  just want to get out of Syria.

44:22

Zaynab and Karen embrace

DYLAN WELCH: Next Zaynab arrives.

KAREN NETTLETON: I’m here. [laughs]… Oh, I told you I’d come. I told you I’d come.

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: I love you so much. I’ve missed you so much.

KAREN NETTLETON: I missed you too, baby. I missed you too. Oh my God. How are you going? Huh?

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: I’m good.

KAREN NETTLETON: Let me see your face.

44:39

Karen lifts Zaynab's niqab

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: I have snot on my nose.

KAREN NETTLETON: Who cares?

45:12

Karen continues kissing Zaynab

KAREN NETTLETON: This is what I have been waiting for just this feeling, you know? Just this. This. God, this. Five years, two months… It’s not a dream.

45:23

Everybody knows I’m here to get you out, but it is just going to take a little time. It’s not going be long at all. 

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: It’s not going to be like a month or something.

KAREN NETTLETON: No. No. No. No. No.

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: It could take a few days.

KAREN NETTLETON: A few days. Okay? A few days.

45:54

Karen into tent with suitcase, distributes gifts

KAREN NETTLETON: Okay, this is the bag of stuff I brought with me and you get to keep the case. Ok, let’s have a look in here. Let’s see what we’ve got.  Slippers. Look what Nana got. We’ve got Skittles, Freddos… remember the Freddos Humzeh? Flakes and ...the smallest one I could find.

46:12

And there’s a bag for Zaynab and a bag for Hoda. I think I got the same sizes, but anyway there’s the same things -- I still buy you matching.

47:00

Here Humzeh, this is a headlight, special headlight. Now you turn that on, let me see, oh look see it’s on, I think you press these. Hey? You can wear it on your head if you want to.

47:17

DYLAN WELCH: Even inside the girls are reluctant to remove their veils, because wearing the niqab is strictly enforced by ISIS followers in the camp.

47:32

Humzeh dons headlight

HUMZEH SHARROUF: Ah, it fits.

47:39

KAREN NETTLETON: Fatoum. Fatoum. That one’s for Fatoum, I got one for you.

47:45

Children with dolls

DYLAN WELCH: Karen is meeting her great grandchildren for the first time.

KAREN NETTLETON: He’s disappointed.

47:51

Kite flying

48:00

Camp shots

DYLAN WELCH: Conditions in the camp are squalid and dozens of children have died here.

48:03

KAREN NETTLETON: Zyrtec.

HODA SHARROUF: Do you remember those Zaynab?

48:13

Return to inside tent with Karen and children

KAREN NETTLETON: Panadol for the girls, diarrhea tablets, Panadols and that hydrate stuff.

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: Thank you so much.

DYLAN WELCH: Karen’s main concern is for Zaynab who is seven and half months pregnant.

48:15

DYLAN WELCH: Are you worried about giving birth in the camp?

48:30

Zaynab interview

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: I think that’s my biggest fear now is to give birth here, because I’ve heard a lot of stories of people giving birth inside their tent and a lot of them haven’t worked out like properly. So it’s yeah, it’s a big fear for me, because I’m scared for that. Children that have died. Some children have made it, some children have died. It’s not a big chance that they’ll live, not a big chance.

48:32

Women with babies and children

DYLAN WELCH: Zaynab describes how they arrived at the camp after a harrowing journey from Baghuz.

49:00

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: I think those are probably days I will probably never forget. They were really hard. We were living in trenches, and there was bullets flying past our heads, explosives exploding all over next to our tent. Yeah, it took us 12 hours to get to the camp and we were through the night. They didn’t give us blankets in the cars or anything. It was really, really freezing. It was so cold I thought I was going to die from the cold. I said I am going to die in this truck with my kids, I had nothing to cover them with. I had nothing to cover myself with.

49:10

Camp shots

DYLAN WELCH: Karen still has no idea how she will get the children out the camp.

KAREN NETTLETON: Okay well Robert and I have been having meetings with the government, about

49:42

Karen in tent with Hoda and Zaynab

probably twice a month ever since you’ve gone to just try and get you back. We don’t get a yes or no answer. All they’ve said is that once we get to Turkey, they’ll give us all the help that they can -- medical, dental, physio, anything that we need. We have to get DNA test for you girls, which will take a little while, so you may have your baby in Turkey.

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: That’s alright, better than having it in the camp.

KAREN NETTLETON: Yeah, well you won’t be having it in the camp.

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: I hope so.

49:57

[continues]

KAREN NETTLETON: And then after that, once we get the papers we can all travel back to Australia. How we get back, whether it’s on a commercial plane…

DYLAN WELCH: But it may not be that simple. Kurdish authorities have to sign off on their release and they are waiting for authorisation from the Australian Government.

50:30

Zaynab interview

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: We’ve been wanting to come home for a very long time, but we were just scared, because we’ve heard a lot of rumours about people that leave. People get raped, tortured. They get caught by other people. That’s why we never actually had the heart to leave.

50:47

DYLAN WELCH: A lot of politicians have said things like ‘I wouldn’t want my children going to school with them, you know, that these people have essentially forfeited

51:03

their right to be Australian. What would you say to that?

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: Well I would say we weren’t the ones that chose to come here in the first place. I mean we were brought here by our parents. And now that our parents are gone, we want to live. And for me and my children, I want to live a normal life just like anyone would want to live a normal life.

51:12

Karen farewells children

KAREN NETTLETON: Ok, bye-bye. Nana’s going to come soon ok? Nana’s going to come soon my darling… Humzeh, I won’t kiss you in front of your friends. Just give me five. Love you and I will be back.

51:32

KAREN NETTLETON: The government should have them on a plane and bring them home.

"Aw, soon bubby, soon."

KAREN NETTLETON: They didn't go there of their own choice, they were taken there. They shouldn't be there.

SCOTT MORRISON: I’m not going to put one Australian life at risk

51:49

Scott Morrison interview. Super:
31 March 2019

to try and extract people from these dangerous situations. I don’t, I think Australians would certainly support that. I think it’s appalling that Australians have gone and fought against our values and our way of life and peace-loving countries of the world in joining the Daesh fight. I think it’s even more despicable that they put their children in the middle of it.

52:05

Apartment exterior

DYLAN WELCH: Karen’s been told she can’t return to the camp. 

52:27

Karen receives text message from Hoda

Then she receives a distressing message.

52:33

KAREN NETTLETON: Um it says, (READS TEXT) “Hi nana. It’s Hoda. I know you are trying your best, but please we need you. I think Zaynab is giving early birth. She’s bleeding. I don’t know what to do. It is getting harder. Please try to be here as soon as possible.” And I’ve just said, (READS TEXT) “I am trying so hard to get you out. It’s not as easy as I thought it would be. I am meeting with people to make this happen as quickly as possible.”

52:37

Karen sits crying.
Fade to black

53:04

Apartment exterior

53:17

Karen on phone to embassy

VOICE ON PHONE: Welcome to the Australian Embassy, Ankara. For information in English, press one.

53:24

KAREN NETTLETON on phone: I want to seek some approval to take immediate custody of these orphan children and to ensure they’ve got access to proper medical care. And I just want to stress, at this point, we are not seeking to repatriate the children, just removal from the camp and into my custody.

53:36

KAREN NETTLETON: I think they should be doing more to help me get the children back, get them back into Australia. I would have liked to have seen them as soon as they knew they were in the camp to start the process to get them back.  

53:58

KAREN NETTLETON on phone : Ok thank you. Bye.

DYLAN WELCH:  Prime Minister Scott Morrison appears to be softening his position.

54:10

Morrison. Super:
5 April 2019

SCOTT MORRISON: Where there are, particularly children, then we’re working with the Red Cross that where they’re in a position for people to get to a place where they might be in a position to return to Australia, then we will cooperate with that process.

54:18

Karen 100%

KAREN NETTLETON: Well, the government has said they will provide all of those – like the de-radicalisation and any assistance that we need in getting the children back into society – they’ll help us do that.

54:31

And they’re not a threat or a danger to anyone. They’re not. I mean Zaynab’s a mum – 17 years old, two children, and one on the way. Humzeh is a little boy, eight. His main worry is his friends. And Hoda is the quiet one. She’s the real soft one.

54:46

Just because their last name is Sharrouf, doesn’t mean they are monsters. Are my children a risk to Australia – absolutely not, absolutely not. No way.

55:20

Text message from Hoda

DYLAN WELCH: There’s good news when Karen learns Zaynab’s condition has improved.

55:36

KAREN NETTLETON: She’s fine, yep she’s fine.

DYLAN WELCH: Zaynab’s been diagnosed with a urinary tract infection, but Karen’s still worried.

55:42

Karen 100%

KAREN NETTLETON: If she stays there she will give birth in the camp and that just can’t happen – babies die in there. Women die in childbirth there… She’s just 17.

55:51

Karen makes phone call

KAREN NETTLETON: Ok, going to try again now.

DYLAN WELCH: Over the next few days Karen is constantly on the phone and in meetings with Kurdish and Australian authorities pressing her case to get her family out.

56:09

Karen on rooftop making phone call to Zaynab

(SFX: Phone ringing)

56:18

ZAYNAB SHARROUF:  Hello.

KAREN NETTLETON: Hey baby, how are you?

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: Good, how are you?

KAREN NETTLETON: I’m good, what’s up.

DYLAN WELCH: Finally, the news they have been waiting for. Karen tells Zaynab the Australians are working out how to extract the children from Syria.

KAREN NETTLETON: So now it’s just a matter of

56:23

Phone call continues

when they are going to take you. I’m hoping that I’ll be with you, but what I think is going to happen is that you’ll get picked up in an ambulance if they can get you across the border and you will be going through, like, the Assad regime area, and the only way for you to do it safely is in ambulance. So I am hoping that I can go too, but they don’t know. They don’t know.

ZAYNAB SHARROUF: Ok but if you can try to put as much pressure on them as you can to do this, because I’m really scared…

56:38

KAREN NETTLETON: And don’t tell anyone else that you’re going to be leaving, because they might get jealous.

57:12

Music

57:17

Apartment exterior

DYLAN WELCH: It’s now 10 days since Karen arrived in Syria.

57:25

Karen on phone

KAREN NETTLETON on phone: That camp is just disgusting.

WOMAN ON PHONE: Sounds awful.

KAREN NETTLETON on phone: Yeah, yeah somebody was killed there yesterday.

57:29

It just seems to me it’s just taking an extraordinarily long time, when they know everything, where the kids are and everything.

DYLAN WELCH: Australian officials are telling her the children will be released, but she has to be patient. It is unclear how long it will take.

57:41

KAREN NETTLETON on phone: Yeah, well I would do anything for them. And I just want it on the record that I’m really frustrated about how long it is taking to get my kids.

57:58

Phone call end. Karen sitting on floor, crying. Producer and Welch leave building. Karen follows. All into van. Drive to border

Music

58:09

Karen in van 100%

KAREN NETTLETON: This is it. I’m leaving Syria. I didn’t think I’d be crossing over without the children, but I am, and I will be waiting for them on the other side. I just hope it doesn’t take too long.

59:00

Drive to border continues

Fade to black

59:19

Outpoint

59:40