Yusuf Zahab
Yusuf Zahab is an Australian youth, who was taken to what was then daesh controlled Syria, when he was just eleven years old.[2][1][3][4] He was reported to have died of wounds in early 2022, but a video from him subsequently emerged, in the summer of 2023.[5][6]
When the last Daesh enclave collapsed many of the foreign volunteers who had gone to fight for ideological reasons had died in battle, but their wives and children were confined to refugee camps, under harsh conditions.[2] Some of those wives remain ideologically committed to the Daesh cause. Others claim they were never committed to Daesh and had been tricked or coerced into following their husbands. Still others acknowledge willingly travelling to the enclave, but only to quickly have become disillusioned, and finding themselves unable to leave.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Zahab was transferred to the Gweiran prison three years ago.[2] They reported he was able to get voice messages to his family, in January 2022, saying the prison was under attack, and requesting help to leave the prison.[7] He said he had suffered a head wound. He hasn't been heard from since, and he is believed to have been died.
He was believed to have earlier acquired tuberculosis in the over-crowded and unsanitary condition in the al-Sina’a prison.[1] Al-Sina is run by a de facto independently run quasi state of Kurds in a region claimed by embattled Syria.
The United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights issued a press release following reports of Zahab's death.[8] The press release noted that Zahab's detention had not been subject to any judicial review, and that the conditions under which he had been detained constituted torture. It noted that the Commission had made repeated call for Australia to make greater efforts to repatriate its citizens.
Australian human rights workers fear that other teenage refugees may be transferred from the dangerous refugee camps to Syria's still more dangerous prisons for adult men.[2] Syrian authorities transfer boys to adult prison when they are as young as twelve years old.[9]
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that human rights workers believe at least forty other Australian children remain caught in Syria.[7]
The Guardian reports that, during the IS attack on the prison, IS fighters used children as human shields.[10]
In August of 2023, that is, just over a year after the Daesh attack on the al-Sina’a prison where Zahab was being held, and where he was believed to have been killed, it was reported that a video of him, dated September 15, 2022 has emerged.[5][6] The youth in the video names himself, and his parents.
On February 27, 2024, SBS News broadcast clips from an exclusive interview with Zahab, from within his prison camp.[11][12]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 [https://web.archive.org/web/20231002161425/https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/17/detained-australian-teenager-dies-northeast-syria "Detained Australian Teenager Dies in Northeast Syria Child Forced to Live Under ISIS Held by Coalition-Backed Forces Since 2019"]. Human Rights Watch (Canberra). 2022-07-17. Archived from the original on 2023-10-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20231002161425/https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/17/detained-australian-teenager-dies-northeast-syria. Retrieved 2024-01-09. "A family representative told Human Rights Watch that an Australian government official had informed relatives on July 17 that Zahab, who would have turned 18 in April, had died from uncertain causes."
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Kathleen Calderwood (2022-07-19). "Advocates fear for women and children in Syrian camps following death of Yusuf Zahab". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-19/advocates-fear-for-others-as-yusuf-zahab-killed-in-syrian-jail/101249148. Retrieved 2022-07-19.
- ↑ "Australian teenager Yusuf Zahab dies in Syrian prison: Yusuf Zahab, who was taken to Syria when he was 11, died in Kurdish-held prison months after pleading for help". Al Jazeera. 2022-07-18. Archived from the original on 2022-07-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20220718092400/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/18/australian-teenager. Retrieved 2024-01-09. "Zahab was only 14 when he was separated from his mother and put in a men’s prison along with hundreds of other Syrian and foreign boys."
- ↑ Tiffanie Turnbull (2022-07-18). "Yusuf Zahab: Australian teen feared killed in Syrian jail". BBC News (Sydney, Australia). Archived from the original on 2022-07-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20220718041701/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-62173775. Retrieved 2024-01-09. "At the time, Yusuf told family in voice recordings he was scared he 'might die at any time' as fighting intensified. 'I lost a lot of blood... There's no doctors here, there's no one who can help me,' he said."
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ben Doherty (2023-08-02). "Australian teenager Yusuf Zahab ‘alive’ in Syrian prison months after reports he was killed in IS strike". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2024-01-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20240106005852/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/02/australian-teenager-yusuf-zahab-alive-in-syrian-prison-months-after-reports-he-was-killed-in-is-strike. Retrieved 2024-01-09. "While the video is nearly a year old, it appears to confirm Zahab survived the IS attack on the prison where he was being held."
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Australian teen presumed killed in Syria is still alive, video purportedly shows". The New Arab (London). 2023-08-03. Archived from the original on 2023-08-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20230803195218/https://www.newarab.com/news/aussie-teen-assumed-dead-syria-may-still-be-alive. Retrieved 2024-01-09. "The teenager was jailed in 2019 at the age of 14 by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)."
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Tom Joyner (2022-01-25). "Australian teenager begs for help from inside Syrian prison at centre of dramatic battle between Islamic State and Kurdish fighters". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-25/australian-teen-in-syrian-prison-amid-firefight/100778996. Retrieved 2022-07-19. "Caught in the chaos of the attack, the Australian boy has sent a handful of short voice recordings to his family in Sydney, describing the terror of the last few days."
- ↑ "UN experts appalled by death of young Australian boy in Syrian detention facility". Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights (Geneva). 2022-07-25. Archived from the original on 2022-07-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20220725095238/https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/07/un-experts-appalled-death-young-australian-boy-syrian-detention-facility. Retrieved 2024-01-09. "'None of these boys, including Yusuf Zahab were subject to any judicial process justifying their detention, and all of them are being held in conditions that could amount to torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under international law and which have a strong impact on their physical and mental health', the experts said."
- ↑ Suzanne Dredge, Alex McDonald (2021-10-19). "More than 40 Australian children still languishing in Syrian detention camp". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 2022-06-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20220618233210/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-20/more-than-40-australian-children-languishing-in-syria-camp/100530332. Retrieved 2022-07-19. "Shayma said the family was tricked by her brothers when they arrived. 'Me or my family didn't choose to join ISIS, we were tricked by my brothers, that's how we got into ISIS,' Shayma said." mirror
- ↑ Caitlin Cassidy (2022-07-18). "Sydney teen Yusuf Zahab believed to have died in IS attack on Syrian jail after begging Australia for help". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2022-07-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20220718150400/https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/18/yusuf-zahab-sydney-australia-teenager-believed-to-have-died-in-is-attack-syria-jail. Retrieved 2022-07-19. "At the time, the Syrian Democratic Forces said they wouldn’t take responsibility for the 700 boys detained in the prison as the fighting continued, amid reports of fatalities and children being used as human shields." mirror
- ↑ "Missing Australian boy Yusuf Zahab speaks with SBS Dateline after being found in a Syrian prison". SBS News. 2024-02-27. Archived from the original on 2024-02-29. https://web.archive.org/web/20240229113925/https://www.sbs.com.au/news/dateline/video/missing-australian-boy-yusuf-zahab-speaks-with-sbs-dateline/kkx8g2n9a. Retrieved 2024-03-01. "A western Sydney schoolboy was taken to Syria with his family to live under IS in 2015. After the fall of the so-called caliphate, he was swept up into the adult Kurdish prison system and feared dead. Now, he has spoken exclusively to SBS Dateline. The full documentary will appear in the coming weeks."
- ↑ Agnes Teek, Colin Cosier (2024-03-01). "I was taken from Australia as a boy to live under IS in Syria. Now I want to come home". SBS News. Archived from the original on 2024-03-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20240301011533/https://www.sbs.com.au/news/dateline/article/i-was-taken-from-australia-as-a-boy-to-live-under-is-in-syria-now-i-want-to-come-home/6rbdjss51. Retrieved 2024-03-01. "Dateline was granted access to interview Yusuf by the Kurdish authorities that govern the northeastern Syrian region."
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