Australian children rescued from Syrian camps need tailored support to reintegrate into society, expert says

A former ADF Special Operations intelligence analyst who is now an expert on countering violent extremism says Australian children brought out of Syrian refugee camps will require intensive support to successfully integrate into the community.

Guardian Australia revealed on Sunday that the Australian government was preparing a repatriation operation to extract selected families out of the hostile camps in north-east Syria.

There are more than 40 children within the Australian cohort, the majority aged under six. Several were born in the detention camps and know no life outside.

The initial Australian mission will not be able to bring the entire cohort out of the camps. Subsequent operations are expected in the coming months.

In June this year, the Commonwealth Secretariat launched a guide to managing the reintegration of violent extremists and their families, written by Australian Peta Lowe.

He said children were spending vital, formative years in violent and dangerous camps.

Healey said the government could establish an Australian-run and controlled centre in a Middle Eastern country where the children could be moved for medical and security checks, and to undertake reintegration and education programs, for several months, even a year, before they move back to Australia.

He said the country had world-leading countering violent extremism experts able to assist the Australians brought out of the camps.

Other countries with nationals inside the Syrian camps have been steadily repatriating their citizens.

Germany has repatriated 91 of its citizens, France 86 and the US 26. Kazakhstan has returned more than 700 of its nationals, Russia and Kosovo more than 200 each.

Al-Hawl, where one Australian family group and several children with a right to Australian citizenship are held, is considered exceedingly dangerous, with a rampant IS organisation, and where more than 100 murders were reported in the 18 months to June this year.

A security operation by the Syrian Democratic Forces last month arrested more than 300 IS operatives inside al-Hawl, seized weapons and liberated at least six women found hidden and chained inside the camp, and who had been tortured by Islamic State over years.

Australian children have suffered acutely in detention in Syria.

In 2021, an 11-year-old Australian girl collapsed due to malnutrition in al-Roj camp. And in 2020, a three-year-old Australian girl suffered severe frostbite to her fingers during a bitterly cold winter.