0:00:02 > 0:00:05Now on BBC News, it's time for Our World.
0:00:10 > 0:00:17Street by street, so-called Islamic State is losing its foothold in Iraq
0:00:17 > 0:00:22and Syria. The caliphate is almost finished on the battlefield but what
0:00:22 > 0:00:29of the children? The families who became part of Islamic State? I have
0:00:29 > 0:00:34come to northern Iraq to find those who are trying to rebuild their
0:00:34 > 0:00:48lives after Isis. To meet its child soldiers. Its former slaves. And the
0:00:48 > 0:00:54search for some of the families of foreigners who chose to serve Isis.
0:00:54 > 0:00:59Many of them have now disappeared without trace.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11In a classroom in northern Iraq, they are singing to overcome their
0:01:11 > 0:01:16memories. These nine and ten year olds were all captives of so-called
0:01:16 > 0:01:25Islamic State, where music was forbidden. From their smiles, you
0:01:25 > 0:01:30might not guess the violence they have seen but they are all scarred
0:01:30 > 0:01:41by it. Isis enslaved this brother and sister. In the time of ISIS,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44what was it like?
0:01:59 > 0:02:02What did they tell you about the guns?
0:02:11 > 0:02:18The children at these rehabilitation centre apart of the non- Muslim
0:02:18 > 0:02:24minority singled out for particular cruelty by Isis. In 2014, their
0:02:24 > 0:02:30villages were seized and thousands of men murdered on the spot. Women
0:02:30 > 0:02:35sold into slavery and children taken for re-education to serve the
0:02:35 > 0:02:40so-called caliphate. What did they say about your family?
0:02:53 > 0:02:59When first they talk about their experience, it was not easy and good
0:02:59 > 0:03:05but now they can express it in a different way.At first they were
0:03:05 > 0:03:09too scared to talk about it?Yes. Now they can talk about it but
0:03:09 > 0:03:18freely. In a better way. They do not express, I wouldn't say anger, but
0:03:18 > 0:03:22they feel comfortable and relaxed now.
0:03:52 > 0:03:58Now, every day brings more your CD children to camps like these, as
0:03:58 > 0:04:10they returned from captivity. -- non- Muslim minority.
0:04:14 > 0:04:21The terror group trained thousands of boys like these and called lion
0:04:21 > 0:04:25cubs of the caliphate. They were fighters, informers, suicide
0:04:25 > 0:04:32bombers. More than 50 boys blew themselves up defending Mosul before
0:04:32 > 0:04:38it fell in July. Some children were foreign fighters, others were
0:04:38 > 0:04:52recruited or keep out from local families. -- kidnapped. This Boyd
0:04:52 > 0:04:57was reunited with his father just two weeks ago but the three years
0:04:57 > 0:05:02away have left a golf between them. He has lost his native language and
0:05:02 > 0:05:12was forced to be converted to the Islamic State religion. They were
0:05:12 > 0:05:15teaching you about guns and the Koran. What were they telling you
0:05:15 > 0:05:18about the Koran?
0:05:24 > 0:05:33If you did not say the right things, how did they punish you? He was
0:05:33 > 0:05:41nearly killed as he was launched in to an attack over the Syrian border.
0:05:54 > 0:06:03How is your leg now? Who did they say the enemy was?
0:06:09 > 0:06:21The infidels? According to Isis, his own father is an infidel and, after
0:06:21 > 0:06:26three years, not surprisingly, part of the boys's mine may still be long
0:06:26 > 0:06:31to the group he was forced to fight for.
0:06:41 > 0:06:47When did they show the videos?
0:07:12 > 0:07:18These two children returning from their music last taking me to meet
0:07:18 > 0:07:23their mother. They were separated when Isis captured them. The family
0:07:23 > 0:07:28paid 28th there is in dollars for his release. He never had to fight
0:07:28 > 0:07:35for ISIS but his sister says that while in captivity he became a track
0:07:35 > 0:07:48did to weapons. -- 20 acres and -- $28,000.
0:07:51 > 0:07:59As for the little girl, she suffered the fate of all women.
0:08:09 > 0:08:18She was forced to be a domestic servant and sex slave. The wives
0:08:18 > 0:08:25were as cruel as the captors themselves. They did nothing to
0:08:25 > 0:08:35help. She says many relatives are still in living hell. Now, there are
0:08:35 > 0:08:47still some family members missing? That is a lot. Because they say now
0:08:47 > 0:08:55that Daesh is almost defeated that everywhere is almost liberated.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00Where are you think they are, where could they be?
0:09:09 > 0:09:14Her sister-in-law says there is another problem, Isis families may
0:09:14 > 0:09:19now be passing of captive children as their own.
0:09:54 > 0:10:03This four-year-old Yazidi boy was found with these ISIS foster father.
0:10:03 > 0:10:15He is dressed ready as if a battle and a a rifle can be seen against
0:10:15 > 0:10:25the wall. Here he is again, looking queasy at the back of a car as his
0:10:25 > 0:10:34Guardian films him in a Mosul. The boy has now been rescued by this
0:10:34 > 0:10:41man. He is a lawyer, and now devotes himself full-time searching for lost
0:10:41 > 0:10:49Yazidi children and reuniting them with their families.
0:11:05 > 0:11:11That kid is only four years old. However young they start, it will be
0:11:11 > 0:11:18years before he can become an Isis soldier or even a slave. From the
0:11:18 > 0:11:24looks in the video, it almost looks as though the man is being kind to
0:11:24 > 0:11:25him.
0:11:39 > 0:11:45He has rescued more than 200 children and women slaves over the
0:11:45 > 0:11:51past two years. He has a network across Iraq and Syria that research
0:11:51 > 0:11:56for captured Yazidi.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14He says that some Isis families are living on -- undetected, among other
0:12:14 > 0:12:19displaced people in camps have taken the captives with them. Even now,
0:12:19 > 0:12:23though, slaves are still too scared to try to escape.
0:12:49 > 0:12:56Millions of people displaced by war now live in camps across Iraq and
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Syria. They hope to find all of the remaining Yezidi slaves among the
0:13:00 > 0:13:06chaos. But over other women and children also lost in the aftermath
0:13:06 > 0:13:11of a chronic state's collapse. Families are foreigners who chose to
0:13:11 > 0:13:16join the group. In the dying days of the caliphate, they have been
0:13:16 > 0:13:18desperate to escape its clutches.
0:13:24 > 0:13:30This is a Russian Muslim mother of three. I will call her Zainab,
0:13:30 > 0:13:34although it isn't her real name. She and her sister were both married to
0:13:34 > 0:13:39Isis fighters. Is that the husband kidnapped their children and took
0:13:39 > 0:13:42them to Isis territory. Zainab and the sister came to try to retrieve
0:13:42 > 0:13:48them but got corrupt. Zainab sent me frantic messages as ices collapsed
0:13:48 > 0:13:54around her. Then there was this, to another contact, before her account
0:13:54 > 0:13:54went silent.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10Relatives of other lost Isis families, particularly from Muslim
0:14:10 > 0:14:14parts of the former soviet union, have also contacted me as I've been
0:14:14 > 0:14:22researching this story. One of them is Moika who spoke to me from
0:14:22 > 0:14:25Chechnya about her daughter and two small granddaughters who were with
0:14:25 > 0:14:28ices in Mosul and who are now lost. -- Isis.
0:14:45 > 0:14:50Here is a family video of other browsers -- Russians living under
0:14:50 > 0:14:54Moika in Rucker in Syria, Isis wanted children like this to belong
0:14:54 > 0:14:58to the Islamic State with their fathers died, over some of the
0:14:58 > 0:15:03mostly dead as ices has fallen and desperate grandparents back in
0:15:03 > 0:15:06Russia have no idea what has happened to the women and children.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37Grandmothers like her have asked me to find out anything I can. And
0:15:37 > 0:15:44finally, I do get a clue. I've just heard that a kidnapped Yezidi girl
0:15:44 > 0:15:48has been reunited with her relatives. She was rescued from one
0:15:48 > 0:15:53of hundreds of foreign Isis families detained by the Iraqi authorities
0:15:53 > 0:16:00after the group's defeat. Worse, some of the role lost Russian
0:16:00 > 0:16:04children's were there with her. -- were some of the lost Russian
0:16:04 > 0:16:08children there with her? Whether other children in the prison?
0:16:17 > 0:16:21I showed her the photos I'd been sent by Russian grandmothers.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Were any of these children with her in the detention camp where there
0:16:29 > 0:16:31were so many foreign families?
0:16:45 > 0:16:52Really? She said she didn't know the girl's name but I recognise her
0:16:52 > 0:16:55also. She's the daughter of one of the women sent desperate messages as
0:16:55 > 0:17:00they tried to flee Isis. Later I discovered that her family has
0:17:00 > 0:17:06survived and will soon be sent back to Russia. But what of the other
0:17:06 > 0:17:13lost children on searching for?A child looks familiar. But I don't
0:17:13 > 0:17:21know. They all - of a Olesen the same family?Yes. OK. There were
0:17:21 > 0:17:261402 arrived at one of our emergency science, it wasn't something we were
0:17:26 > 0:17:31expecting. I don't think any of the children ever smiled. Thus, any of
0:17:31 > 0:17:39us. Aid worker Melanie Markham saw the same foreign families who the
0:17:39 > 0:17:43girl was with in this counter displaced people before they were
0:17:43 > 0:17:47taken to the detention centre. No names of those there have been
0:17:47 > 0:17:50released by the authorities. Some of the mothers may now be prosecuted
0:17:50 > 0:17:55for complicity in Isis crimes. It Melanie believes the children should
0:17:55 > 0:18:01be returned to other relatives.Two thirds of this group were children.
0:18:01 > 0:18:06So they would never be charged with a crime. And I saw tiny babies, what
0:18:06 > 0:18:12are they guilty of? So those children need to be with their
0:18:12 > 0:18:21families. And with people who care for them. And whatever way that can
0:18:21 > 0:18:25happen, the authorities and humanitarian organisations need to
0:18:25 > 0:18:31work together to ensure that.But the suffering of Isis wives and
0:18:31 > 0:18:36children in the little to Yezidi families. They have lost far more.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47Gathering to welcome her back, but also lament her murdered father and
0:18:47 > 0:18:58her mother, sister, and brother, all kidnapped and still missing. A
0:18:58 > 0:19:0219-year-old Yezidi has returned. Her father was murdered when Isis took
0:19:02 > 0:19:07over their village three years ago. She was taken prisoner, along with
0:19:07 > 0:19:10her two sisters, and they all suffered more than three years of
0:19:10 > 0:19:17sexual slavery, passed from one Isis rapist to another. But today, she is
0:19:17 > 0:19:21going for a ceremony that is meant to help cleanse women like her.
0:19:33 > 0:19:39I have come to the Yezidi holiest place, Lalish, a complex of shrines
0:19:39 > 0:19:41where her people have celebrated their unique religion for hundreds
0:19:41 > 0:19:48of years. A religion Isis regarded as devil worship. Yezidi children
0:19:48 > 0:19:52have always come here for a form of baptism that now, the ceremony is
0:19:52 > 0:19:56repeated the those returning from Isis captivity.
0:20:39 > 0:20:45Before leaving Lalish, the other prescribed rituals that the girl,
0:20:45 > 0:20:50her sisters and her brother should also perform. Reconnecting with
0:20:50 > 0:20:54their faith comfort them, they say, that they are not planning to stay
0:20:54 > 0:20:56here in their historic homeland.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15Now, what do you think? Your future will be?
0:21:24 > 0:21:30Do you believe -- you would leave all of these platers behind question
0:21:30 > 0:21:33mark you live Lalish, you would leave these places forever?
0:21:46 > 0:21:53One ceremony involves throwing a cloth of a pillar and if it lands,
0:21:53 > 0:21:57it is good luck, and it is something that all of the victims of Isis
0:21:57 > 0:21:59desperately deserve now.
0:22:06 > 0:22:12But what this family is pushing for its asylum in Australia and many of
0:22:12 > 0:22:17the Yezidis want to live also. Isis may be defeated but they know that
0:22:17 > 0:22:22escaping the black shadow it is cast over the region will take much, much
0:22:22 > 0:22:23longer.