Painful stories from Tunisia ... The families of those detained in Syria are demanding the return of their families

Khamis bin Brik-Tunisia

Zahra Al-Hamedi did not expect one day to lose her family members at once after they drifted behind her young brother who traveled to fight against the Syrian regime in 2014. But since then she has had a new family of Tunisian families arrested in Syria who are demanding that the authorities bring them.

This 55-year-old woman looks bleak and mired in pain among her comrades who came from every hump of protest in front of the parliament building today, Friday, calling on the authorities to move to retrieve the women and children arrested in Syria who face harsh conditions.

There is only this old woman, who is tired of the disease, 85 years old, her young son and her burdened husband.

"I was initially confused about losing my little brother in Syria, and then I lost an entire family," Zahra tells Al Jazeera Net in a choking cry.

Family tragedy
This nightmare seemed to have paved his way to sowing despair in her life since her younger brother decided to perform the pilgrimage with his wife and children in March 2014. But the truth is completely different because this is only a novel that he created so that he would not shock his family before he confessed to the secret.

Zahra continues her speech, throwing tears of heartburn over the disintegration of her family in the maze of war, after she later mistook her four brothers and traveled to Syria through Turkey, escorting their sons, wives, and old mother who wanted to meet her younger son before she died.

But predestination wanted her younger brother to be killed in 2015 as a result of the bombing, and the others remained stuck in Syria unable to get out of it until they were arrested in 2017 in the detention centers of the Kurdish forces where her mother breathed her last in a country that she does not know.

Thousands of Tunisian youth poured into the aftermath of the 2011 revolution, individually or with their wives and children, to join the war against the Syrian regime.

A major political debate erupted in Tunisia amid the Islamists' accusation of involvement in the travel of citizens to the hotbeds of tension following the revolution.

Like others who were stunned by the news of the departure, arrest or death of her children in Syria, Zahra continues to knock on the doors of organizations and authorities to no avail. "Today, we made a mum crying in front of Parliament to bring our sons and women and try them in Tunisia if necessary," she says.

Mysterious fate
Rafika al-Sharqi, 62, appears in her black clothes and sad parts, without a soul after she lost her youngest daughter in 2014. She says, "My daughter was happy, but it was not until one year after her marriage that she called me through a long number to tell me that she is in Syria."

This woman from the northern governorate of Bizerte could not bear the shock of leaving her 18-year-old daughter. She tells Al Jazeera Net that she became ill with breast cancer, blood pressure, gout and osteoporosis, but she continued to knock on the authorities ’doors to intervene to save her daughter and the other stranded.

Four years ago, her brother-in-law was killed in the bombing of the Syrian regime and her only daughter's amputation was cut off, and since then her news has been cut off until her detained neighbors tell her that she is in a Kurdish camp. And this news restored her hope mixed with bewilderment and fear for her mysterious fate.

Lawyer Anwar Ouled Ali, head of the Observatory for Rights and Freedoms in Tunisia, says to Al Jazeera Net that the authorities are failing to resolve this file, although his organization submitted to the Committee for Women, Family and Childhood Affairs in the parliament that ended its mandate with a nominal list of the identity of 39 children stuck in Syria.

Ostrich policy
"The Tunisian authorities are adopting an ostrich policy on the issue of Tunisians held in hotspots," lawyer Anwar added, denouncing leaving children who face their own fate alone in harsh conditions in Syria, although they did not choose their families or their living conditions, nor their guilt in the involvement of their parents in fighting in Syria.

The fate of children stranded in Syria is no different from the fate of their Tunisian counterparts stuck with their mothers in Libya. A few weeks ago, President Qais Said received six Tunisian orphaned children who were returned from Libya after their embrace for a period of the Libyan Red Crescent.

These children were directed to child care centers to provide them with psychological and health care before handing them over to their families.

Child Protection Representative Mehyar Al Hammadi said in a statement that Tunisia is legally required to recover children trapped in hotbeds and refugee camps.

Human Rights Watch called on the authorities to expedite the return of the sons of Tunisian fighters in the ranks of the Islamic State in Syria, noting that about two hundred children and 100 women - who say they have Tunisian nationalities abroad - are held without charges for more than three years.