In March 2019, the Syrian Democratic Forces, founded by the Kurdish groups YPG and YPJ, ended the Caliphate of the Islamic State in its last bastion, in the city of Baghouz. The dissolution of this dictatorship, however, has left a great humanitarian disaster in the autonomous committees built by the Kurds in northern and eastern Syria.

Thousands of jihadist fighters have collapsed into five prisons in northern Syria, where they have been detained. In fact, the Rojava region has gone from being the world’s most modest average number of prisoners, like the San Marino region, to having prisons full up. But more serious is the fate of the social base of Daesh and the refugees affected. According to the journalist team Rojava Information Center, more than 65,000 people have been trapped in Al Hol camp in Hasaka province. Of these, 30,000 are Iraqis and 10,000 people were there before the Caliphate disaster occurred. Another 25,000 people are of Syrian origin and the remaining 10,000 are from countries in Europe, Asia, Africa or America, among others.

In particular, half of the population in the area is under 12 years of age and one quarter is under five years of age. Among those who are not Syrians or Iraqis, 65 per cent have not reached the age of 12. In addition, it should be noted that in the camp there are not only refugees, but there are about 20,000 people related to the Islamic State, mostly women and children.

As Rojava Information Center warned, many believe that Al Hol has become the academy of Islamic State, where women have used jihadist ideology to spread among children and ensure a new generation of terrorists. Some of them have taken on the same responsibilities as they had before and, moreover, Hisba is in force, that is, the Caliphate Police, charged with “monitoring morality”. Their activity is evident and they have committed murders and assaults against a number of people. To this must be added that there are active groups in the Al Hol camp in Daesh and that in 2021 have already killed at least six people. For example, at the beginning of the year, when security forces surrounded an Islamist suspect, he committed suicide and killed a member of the Asayish self-defense group.

The situation is not unusual, as Isis has multiplied the attacks in almost all of Syria. At the end of December 2020, he killed 30 paramilitaries from the Syrian regime in an ambush in the desert and began the year killing seven people in the SDF-controlled territory. However, the situation of its civil structure in North and East Syria, built by the Kurds, remains very serious.

The International Coalition, set up in 2014 with several countries, used aircraft and weapons to bomb Islamic State militiamen in Syria and Iraq, but it has not put in place sufficient means to dismantle the unarmed column of radical Islamism; infrastructures are insufficient and anti-radicalisation programmes are very limited, because there is no money for it. According to the NGO Human Rights Watch, 80 per cent of Syrians live in poverty and queues and difficulties in getting bread have increased in almost all places. In addition, several cities and towns continue to be destroyed.

The Madrid journalist Sara Ainhoa of Ceano-Vivas, specialized in international affairs, has lived a long season in Syria, where she has actively participated. In his words, in the territory controlled by the Kurds the people see the situation with despair: “People have internalized that there is no other solution. Several members of ISIS have been released through agreements and assurances of Arab tribes, but thousands of people have been arrested in the Arab country. It is disappointing that there are few resources and that the few that are to be allocated to them. There is also rage, above all, of the international community, because no one wants to take responsibility for the citizens from outside. The most radical are, in general, those outside Syria. They came to Kurdistan and Syria ideologized for the racism they suffered in their original societies. Now they are the problem of the Syrians, because there is not even economic aid.” Several members of ISIS have been freed in the areas of Raqqa or Deir No-Zor by Arab tribes, which have been detained. The heads of the Arab clans have taken care of many of the prisoners who have been imprisoned. These tributes that have not committed bloody crimes have returned to civilian life and the heads of the clans must ensure that they will not return to the Islamic State. However, there are still thousands of detainees who have participated in EiTB.

The journalist has stressed that all these people are “in the limbo”: “The international community has been asked to form a tribunal to clarify the crimes that have occurred in Syria, but no real steps have been taken. Moreover, many Iraqis do not want to return to their country, because the Iraqi Government would condemn them to death and the Self-Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria is against it.”

The lack of
tools for the management of Daesh militants, overwhelmed by prisons, is reflected in the overcrowding of infrastructure. Hasakan has 100 members of the Islamic State stabbed in his rooms, and several riots have already taken place on the same premises. In the Kurdish city of Kobane, 20 prisoners of that group are also held in each cell, according to the Basque Department of the Interior. Moreover, the radical prisoners and those who are willing to give up the Caliphate are together and it is impossible to distinguish between them.

In the Al Hol camp, the situation is no better. All of this has three consequences: poor services, lack of medical care and poor living conditions. Data are significant: In 2019, 500 people died in the camp due to material deficiencies, of which 371 were children.

Going back to society, a difficult option In
fact, one of the solutions is the integration of people who have participated in jihad, but at the moment it is not viable due to lack of resources. For example, in 2017 the Self-Administration opened the Huri Center in Qamishlo, but it is the only such initiative. The aim of this headquarters is to serve the young people that the Islamic State formed to combat or commit suicide attacks abroad. Employees recognize that it is a difficult task and many recognize Rojava Information Center that, initially, teens don't look at the female monitors face: “Daesh’s ideology is very misogynistic, but over time positive results are obtained.”

However, Huri’s workers point out that intervention with Syrians is easier, as many joined the jihad for money.

Although
the foreign members of ISIS, Iraqis or Syrians hope to return once to their communities, for the self-administration of the unclarified Kurdish burdens are jihadists, many women, who migrated from other countries to Syria. Although the French State, Austria, Russia or some Central Asian states have repatriated children, they do not want to know anything about militiamen – 2,000 in prisons – or about adult women.

In the case of those who have been wrestlers, in some states it seems that the debate is closed, but in the case of women it does not. Following the premiere of Commander Arian, a film that narrates the life of an officer of the Kurdish group YPJ and which can be seen in the ARGIA multimedia channel with subtitles in Basque, filmmaker Alba Sotorra has made the film The return. During the interview, the guest has reported the history of several women who worked in the Islamic State. The ingenious woman had the opportunity to live with them in Roj Camp, where she recorded a group of women in a process of radicalization.

The British Shamima Begun became well known for being a IS militant. There are also some less well-known, but they've all analyzed their trajectory in front of the cameras. In some cases they feel victimized and in others they say they have been deceived. There are people on that journey who have lost their friends, their husband or their children, or who have clearly perceived chauvinist oppression. The experience unites the experience with a desire: to return home.

Unfortunately, unlike Roj Camp, many of those remaining in the Al Hol camp have not critically reviewed their participation in the Caliphate. For example, journalist Jake Hanrahan, who runs the independent communication initiative Popular Front, interviewed two Caribbean women in his podcast. Among other things, jihadists remembered the day-to-day life of Islamic State as a "tea party." The British journalist ended this harsh conversation with contradictory feelings: “At the end I felt anger and grief, but their actions caused a lot of suffering and behaved as if they had done nothing.”

The response of former Daesh members to a question about Yezidian women, the ethnic and religious community of the Kurds, particularly highlighted the journalist: “They talked about the fact that the Jezidians liked being slaves. The Jezidi women were kidnapped, raped and sold. At that moment, I felt disgust. They didn't repent of what they had done. It’s terrible for someone to say that they liked it.”