15 Dutch women with links to ISIS escape camp in northeast Syria

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Fifteen Dutch women with alleged ties to ISIS have escaped from camps in northeast Syria where they were being held, the Dutch government confirmed on Monday. 

So far, no male ISIS-affiliated prisoners from the Netherlands are known to have escaped camps or prisons in the area.

In an update on the European nation’s contribution to the anti-ISIS Coalition’s mission, Caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister Sigrid Kaag and Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld told the Dutch parliament on Monday that little was known so far regarding the escapees’ identities or age. 

“It's also often unclear when they escaped,” Kaag and Bijleveld said.

The women were living in al-Hol and al-Roj displacement camps, controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which the Dutch ministers characterized as “under pressure due to the high number of persons in the camps and the COVID-pandemic.”

“The security within the camps is fragile, and international organizations often report on violence, radicalization and recruitment by ISIS. For this reason, the SDF recently carried out a security operation in which over 100 persons were arrested who were suspected of ISIS-activities.”

In November, the Dutch government previously confirmed that other women had escaped from al-Hol camp. 

In a statement, the government said it was worried that the women could rejoin terrorist groups or return to the Netherlands without being detected, saying, it had “taken measures to limit the risk of the undetected return of (extremist) travellers.”

Last month, a Dutch national with alleged ties to ISIS, her two underage children, and another orphaned minor were repatriated from Syria to the Netherlands.

Read More: Dutch government confirms return of Dutch woman, children from Syria

Dutch authorities had previously said it was too risky for diplomats to pick up children from a conflict zone and had not made the journey to Syria since 2019 when a joint Dutch-French delegation repatriated orphans, including two Dutch children.

According to the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (​AIVD), there are 30 Dutch women in camps held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and another 75 children among them with a link to the Netherlands.

Editing by John J. Catherine