They’re the men no country wants. Locked up and accused of being Islamic State fighters, they’re considered a threat to the West and the prospect of peace in the new Syria.
“I travelled to Syria to make jihad. I won’t lie,” Londoner Hamza Parvez says through his cell grate. “A lot of mistakes were made – I’m bearing the brunt of those mistakes.”
He is one of thousands of foreigners, from countries such as Britain and the US, who’ve been held in prisons since Islamic State was largely defeated in 2019. Now they’re seen as a growing security risk by the US-backed Kurdish armed group holding them.
The smell as the prison door is heaved opened is pungent.
For about six years, these men have been cut off from the outside world. They’ve not faced a trial or seen lawyers. They know nothing of the seismic events taking place within Syria.
We’ve been warned not to tell the prisoners that former Syrian president Bashar al Assad has been ousted, for fear it causes unrest or stokes further hopes among them of an ISIS comeback.(Skynews)