‘Indefinite torture’: the desperate wait for Australian mothers in Syria to get their children out

Australian mothers trapped with their young families inside one of Syria's brutal detention camps say they are desperate to get their children out, fearful they will be taken from them, or they will die.

"The kids are shaken each time they see a soldier holding a gun," one mother in the camp said. "And each night, when the boys hear a car, they can't sleep, afraid they will be taken away from their mother."

About 40 Australians - 10 women and 30 children - remain held within the Roj camp in north-east Syria, near the Iraqi border.

They are the wives, widows and children of slain or jailed Islamic State fighters: most have been held in the squalid detention camp more than three years. Conditions are "dire", the Red Cross says, and the security situation "extremely volatile".

Communications inside the camp are heavily restricted. But the Guardian has spoken with mothers inside the camp, as well as with families in Australia, and independent sources with access inside, and knowledge of the camp's operations.

"Since the earthquake struck in early February it affected the stability of the camp which already was very unstable," one source said.

"Whenever any event happens in either Iraq, Syria or Turkey it affects us drastically, if one road is blocked we have no more access to clean drinking water, if another is blocked we have no fruit. Disease is widespread, water is scarce."