With the extradition of ISIS fighter Ibro Cufurovic, from Syria to Bosnia, the north-eastern Syrian camp Roj is said to hold 30 more Bosnian citizens whose relatives now demand that Bosnian authorities return them home, citing inhumane conditions.

Of the 30 Bosnians remaining in the camp, three are women with their nine children. One of them is the sister of Alema Dolamic, who has been in the camp with her three children for more than a year.

Alema came to the spotlight in 2018 when she first turned to the press and asked the authorities for help. Now she wrote to them once again, and N1 got her letter through its sources.

“I write to you for the hundredth time in less than two years. I’m Alema, the woman trying to get her ill sister and three of her children out of Syria, and not just them, dozens of other Bosnian women and their children as well,” Alema starts her open letter.

“I don’t know if you know this, but they’re living in tents, on the ground, in mud, sometimes without food. They bore their children there, teaching them first words in those tents, telling them stories they would come to Bosnia one day to visit their grandparents, go to school and play with their friends,” she wrote on behalf of all families.

She added that all the women there know they made a mistake coming to Syria, threatening the lives of their children. But if they are guilty, Alema asks why are they not tried and imprisoned for their crimes in their own country, not some distant land? What are the children guilty of, she asks.

Every time they ask Alema if there is any news of their return to Bosnia, she has to tell them that the government is yet to form its coordination body which would deal with this issue.

“We have no one else to turn to, no one else to ask for help. We’re running out of hope,” she wrote.

“Therefore, we, whose family members are in Syria, are begging you to help us end this agony! There must find some way. Give us the right information, help us find a way to end this. Maybe we can do something more together… We just want the kids to have another chance; we want them to have a chance to grow with their families, in a safe place,” Alema noted. “If you have any sympathy, then you will understand that we, the family, have been in the dark for far too long.”

She ended her letter saying she wants to believe that Bosnia will not violate children’s rights and that it will help end this situation.