a rehabilitation center for the children of jihadists

The huge Al-Hol camp in northeast Syria hosts tens of thousands of refugees, including many families of Islamic State fighters. Women and children who have only known war and this open-air prison. Some of them left the camp. About fifty boys, British, German, French… who have been placed in a rehabilitation center, which looks like an ordinary school. Here, we will teach them to live in society. The director of the center, who remained anonymous, is rather confident: “Through psychological and educational support, the objective is to help to accept others. The center provides language, mathematics, music, drawing lessons… the children must learn to express themselves.

Avoiding a new generation of jihadists

“When they arrived, some did not know how to communicate with us. It got better. Others remained isolated, today some communicate with each other and express their opinions”. The center is equipped with surveillance cameras and only welcomes boys, considered more at risk in terms of radicalization. Daesh has not disappeared from Syria. It is always a danger, and these children are always very influenceable. The rehabilitation process should save the region from the emergence of a new generation of radical extremists. This center is the first of its kind, reserved for the children of jihadists. But the Kurdish autonomous administration, where resources are limited, would prefer that the children be welcomed in their country of origin. Returns that are being made in dribs and drabs.