Lawyer said Global Affairs Canada confirmed the women’s whereabouts after missing for 11 days. Two Canadian women and three teenage girls who were set to be repatriated from camps for family members of ISIS suspects in Syria were instead detained and mistreated by their Kurdish guards rather than being taken to their pick-up point, their lawyer says. The women have been missing ever since the repatriation flight to Canada took off without them more than 10 days ago. Edmonton lawyer Zachary Al-Khatib told CBC News that one of the women was able to make a short phone call to a relative Tuesday before the line dropped after 4 minutes. The woman said the five of them had been detained and mistreated by Kurdish authorities in what’s known as “Red Prison” at al-Hol camp and at a second prison, said Al-Khatib. “They were in real distress,” Al-Khatib said. “There was a very short proof-of-life call. They wanted to come back to Canada.” Al-Khatib said the women require medical attention and are in need of assistance. He said he doesn’t know why his clients were in Syria and he hasn’t seen a “shred of evidence these two women travelled for the purposes of joining ISIS.”
Al-Khatib said he received an email from Global Affairs Canada on Tuesday informing him the government had received information from multiple sources indicating that the five Canadians are now at the al-Roj camp in northeastern Syria.
The Al-Roj camp is the location the Canadian government used as a meeting place earlier this month for those it brought back to Canada. The camps hold ISIS suspects and their family members. Source:cbc.ca/
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
