<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/25/for-an-hour-six-year-old-layla-was-free-now-shes-back-in-a-syrian-camp-where-she-has-spent-her-entire-life-ntwnfb>
"The first thing Layla did when she left al-Roj camp was stick her head out the
car window. The six-year-old gulped in the “sweet, sweet air” and clutched her
cousins close as they saw the outside world for the first time in their lives.
Layla saw “a drink shop, a donkey, a baby horse” as she feasted on candy
brought by her relatives from Australia. She peppered her mother and aunts with
questions about what Australia was like – “do we have to live in a tent there
too?” – as the camp disappeared behind them.
Then a phone rang and the car turned around. They were brought back to the camp
and the outside world was once again hidden behind barbed-wire topped walls.
Layla watched as her aunt Zahraa fell to the ground and began to scream, and
suddenly she felt ill, vomiting up all of the candy she had eaten in the car.
For an hour last week, the 23 Australian children held in al-Roj detention camp
in Syria were free. They are the children of 11 Australian women who travelled
to Syria during the height of the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate. Most of
them have spent their entire lives in detention camps in the remote deserts of
Syria where the families of suspected members of IS are held.
Now back in the camp, the kids sit together on the rocky ground outside their
tents, waiting.
“When we came back, I was so sad and upset. It was terrible. Why do I have to
be in here? I don’t want to be in a tent. I don’t want to be in a camp. I don’t
want to be in a prison … I just want to go and be free,” 11-year-old Baidaa
says through tears. “Living in tents, it’s just so hard. It’s cold. It’s dirty
and it’s disgusting and I don’t like it.”
Her siblings and cousin gather around her as she speaks. Layla buries her face
in her mother’s shirt when the return to the camp is brought up. “I don’t want
to cry,” she whispers to her mother."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
