(Middle East Eye) On 16 July, the majority of the women and children held at al-Roj camp were still asleep when a convoy of cars entered the open-air prison in northeastern Syria.
A few minutes later, at around 5.30am, six Belgian [women] and their 10 children, carrying just a few bags, were quietly removed from their tents by Kurdish soldiers and taken to a minibus.
The operation proceeded swiftly, with no time for long goodbyes with their neighbours, other women at the camp for families of suspected members of Islamic State (IS), with whom they had been living for more than three years.
Waiting for them in their cars were representatives of the Belgian authorities, dispatched to the area to oversee the smooth running of the operation.
