The Biden administration has repatriated a family of 10 American citizens who were stranded for years in desert camps and detention centers in Syria run by a Kurdish-led militia fighting the Islamic State, officials said.
The government also brought a pair of half-brothers to the United States – only one of them, reportedly seven, is an American citizen. The relocation of the other boy, said to be nine years old, marks the first time the United States has accepted someone from the war zone who is not an American citizen.
The administration announced the transfer early Tuesday in a statement from Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who said there had been a “complex repatriation and relocation” involving 11 American citizens, five of whom were minors, and that ” “9-year-old non-U.S. sibling of one of the minor U.S. citizens.”
He added: “This is the largest single repatriation of U.S. citizens from northeast Syria to date.”
The statement announcing the transfer did not identify the twelve people. But two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details, said that 10 were a family that The New York Times reported on in September and that included a woman named Brandy Salman and hers nine children born in the USA between the ages of around six and up to around 25.
The other two, officials said, were the sons – one biological and one adopted – of a man named Abdelhamid Al-Madioum, who was repatriated in 2020 and pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism. The Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported this month that his two young sons had been found and would soon arrive in Minnesota to be raised by his parents.
The aftermath of the collapse of the ISIS caliphate – which continued to carry out terrorist attacks after losing control of its former territory – has led to a simmering problem in northeastern Syria, where tens of thousands of people remain effectively imprisoned in the custody of the ISIS Kurdish-led militia Syrian Democratic Forces.
Around 45,000 people live in the refugee camps – mostly women and children. They include about 17,000 Syrians, about 18,750 Iraqis and about 9,000 “third-country nationals” from more than 60 countries, officials said. The militia also holds around 8,800 adult men in war prisons.
Most adult men are suspected of joining the Islamic State, including some who traveled to Syria or Iraq from Europe and the United States. Some brought their families with them.
The United States has encouraged other countries to take back their nationals – prosecuting them if necessary – and in some cases has provided military logistical assistance. The same transfer operation that brought the dozen people to the United States also removed six Canadian citizens, four Dutch citizens and one Finnish citizen who are returning to their respective countries, Mr. Blinken said. There are eight children among them.
Since 2016, when the ISIS caliphate began to crumble, the United States has repatriated 51 American citizens — 30 children and 21 adults, according to the State Department. That number includes the 11 citizens who were admitted early Tuesday.
Many countries – particularly in Europe – were reluctant to allow their citizens, particularly men, to return, fearing they posed a security threat. Some fear that in their legal system, a prison sentence for joining the Islamic State would only last a few years.
Even small children who come from ISIS families are often stigmatized. As a result, many children have to grow up in brutal conditions and are considered vulnerable to radicalization in the camps.
The Times reported last fall that Ms. Salman’s Turkish-born husband apparently took the family to ISIS territory in 2016 and later killed them. Most of the family will now live with their mother in New Hampshire, and the Department of Health, working with local social services agencies, has developed a plan to help them integrate into society, officials said.
However, one of Ms Salman’s daughters, now over 21, is apparently being prosecuted for an alleged action in Syria. The woman was arrested when the military plane carrying the group landed at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport early Tuesday, an official said.
In 2022 and 2023, investigators from Human Rights Watch and the United Nations each interviewed one of Ms. Salman’s sons, now about 18 years old.
At the time, he was living separately from the rest of his family in what the Kurdish militia described as a rehabilitation or de-radicalization center for young people. Guards took him there in early 2020, he told investigators, as part of a controversial policy to remove boys from the main displaced camps, Al Hol and Roj, when they reached puberty.
The teenager told investigators that his father tricked the family into traveling to Syria by telling them they would be camping in Turkey, only later revealing that they had crossed the border and that his mother had kept children mostly at home because she was worried. The Times was unable to verify the details of that account.
The UN investigator also said the teenager expressed “great distress and concern” over his inability to communicate meaningfully with his mother and showed the investigator paintings and drawings depicting them together. He also talked about hamburgers and a lack of rap music, she said.
Human Rights Watch also featured the teenager — by covering his face and using a pseudonym — in a video about children stranded in Syria after their parents took them there to join ISIS. In it he said: “It’s not just me. There are a lot of us children, you know. Nobody wants to stay what it’s like to grow up here and do nothing. That’s what we all feel.”
In the case of the two half-brothers, a court that filed the charges against their father, Mr. Al-Madioum, said that in 2015, when he was a student visiting Morocco with his family, he ran away to join ISIS.
He eventually married the widow of a killed ISIS fighter, fought in combat himself and was seriously wounded, including losing part of an arm. He surrendered to the Kurdish-led militia in March 2019 and was returned to the United States for prosecution in 2020.
A court filing also noted that he was with “his two small children” at the time of his surrender to the militia. However, officials clarified that only the boy was Mr. Al-Madioum’s biological son. Mr Al-Madioum apparently adopted the other boy when he married their mother, the widow, who was apparently later killed herself.
There are many challenges when transferring people. The Kurdish militia does not maintain comprehensive and accurate records of everyone it detains, and the mixed ancestry of many children further complicates efforts to persuade countries to accept them.
Ian Moss, deputy counterterrorism coordinator at the State Department, said in an interview that by taking in the 9-year-old boy, who is not an American citizen but has a connection to the country through his brother, the United States was trying to set a good example precede.
“For reintegration it is important that we do not separate the families,” he said. “And as we continue to work to solve this problem, we need to think creatively about how we can preserve family unity. This inevitably means that countries – just as the United States has done – must offer resettlement to people who are not their nationals.”
A lot has changed in recent years. In 2022, nearly 3,000 of the displaced were repatriated – or, in the case of Syrians, returned to their home communities within the country – more than those who left militia custody between 2019 and 2021 combined. In 2023, more than 5,400 people were repatriated or returned to their communities of origin.
“As governments carry out the repatriation of their nationals, we call for consideration and flexibility to ensure, as much as possible, that family units remain intact,” Blinken said.
He added: “The only lasting solution to the humanitarian and security crisis in the refugee camps and detention centers in northeastern Syria is for countries to undertake repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration and, where appropriate, accept responsibility for wrongdoing.”
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2024-05-07 11:15:14
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