Escaping Isis Our World

Now on BBC News,

it's time for Our World.

Street by street, so-called Islamic

State is losing its foothold in Iraq

and Syria. The caliphate is almost

finished on the battlefield but what

of the children? The families who

became part of Islamic State? I have

come to northern Iraq to find those

who are trying to rebuild their

lives after Isis. To meet its child

soldiers. Its former slaves. And the

search for some of the families of

foreigners who chose to serve Isis.

Many of them have now disappeared

without trace.

In a classroom in northern Iraq,

they are singing to overcome their

memories. These nine and ten year

olds were all captives of so-called

Islamic State, where music was

forbidden. From their smiles, you

might not guess the violence they

have seen but they are all scarred

by it. Isis enslaved this brother

and sister. In the time of ISIS,

what was it like?

What did they tell you about the

guns?

The children at these rehabilitation

centre apart of the non- Muslim

minority singled out for particular

cruelty by Isis. In 2014, their

villages were seized and thousands

of men murdered on the spot. Women

sold into slavery and children taken

for re-education to serve the

so-called caliphate. What did they

say about your family?

When first they talk about their

experience, it was not easy and good

but now they can express it in a

different way.

At first they were

too scared to talk about it?

Yes.

Now they can talk about it but

freely. In a better way. They do not

express, I wouldn't say anger, but

they feel comfortable and relaxed

now.

Now, every day brings more your CD

children to camps like these, as

they returned from captivity. --

non- Muslim minority.

The terror group trained thousands

of boys like these and called lion

cubs of the caliphate. They were

fighters, informers, suicide

bombers. More than 50 boys blew

themselves up defending Mosul before

it fell in July. Some children were

foreign fighters, others were

recruited or keep out from local

families. -- kidnapped. This Boyd

was reunited with his father just

two weeks ago but the three years

away have left a golf between them.

He has lost his native language and

was forced to be converted to the

Islamic State religion. They were

teaching you about guns and the

Koran. What were they telling you

about the Koran?

If you did not say the right things,

how did they punish you? He was

nearly killed as he was launched in

to an attack over the Syrian border.

How is your leg now? Who did they

say the enemy was?

The infidels? According to Isis, his

own father is an infidel and, after

three years, not surprisingly, part

of the boys's mine may still be long

to the group he was forced to fight

for.

When did they show the videos?

These two children returning from

their music last taking me to meet

their mother. They were separated

when Isis captured them. The family

paid 28th there is in dollars for

his release. He never had to fight

for ISIS but his sister says that

while in captivity he became a track

did to weapons. -- 20 acres and --

$28,000.

As for the little girl, she suffered

the fate of all women.

She was forced to be a domestic

servant and sex slave. The wives

were as cruel as the captors

themselves. They did nothing to

help. She says many relatives are

still in living hell. Now, there are

still some family members missing?

That is a lot. Because they say now

that Daesh is almost defeated that

everywhere is almost liberated.

Where are you think they are, where

could they be?

Her sister-in-law says there is

another problem, Isis families may

now be passing of captive children

as their own.

This four-year-old Yazidi boy was

found with these ISIS foster father.

He is dressed ready as if a battle

and a a rifle can be seen against

the wall. Here he is again, looking

queasy at the back of a car as his

Guardian films him in a Mosul. The

boy has now been rescued by this

man. He is a lawyer, and now devotes

himself full-time searching for lost

Yazidi children and reuniting them

with their families.

That kid is only four years old.

However young they start, it will be

years before he can become an Isis

soldier or even a slave. From the

looks in the video, it almost looks

as though the man is being kind to

him.

He has rescued more than 200

children and women slaves over the

past two years. He has a network

across Iraq and Syria that research

for captured Yazidi.

He says that some Isis families are

living on -- undetected, among other

displaced people in camps have taken

the captives with them. Even now,

though, slaves are still too scared

to try to escape.

Millions of people displaced by war

now live in camps across Iraq and

Syria. They hope to find all of the

remaining Yezidi slaves among the

chaos. But over other women and

children also lost in the aftermath

of a chronic state's collapse.

Families are foreigners who chose to

join the group. In the dying days of

the caliphate, they have been

desperate to escape its clutches.

This is a Russian Muslim mother of

three. I will call her Zainab,

although it isn't her real name. She

and her sister were both married to

Isis fighters. Is that the husband

kidnapped their children and took

them to Isis territory. Zainab and

the sister came to try to retrieve

them but got corrupt. Zainab sent me

frantic messages as ices collapsed

around her. Then there was this, to

another contact, before her account

went silent.

Relatives of other lost Isis

families, particularly from Muslim

parts of the former soviet union,

have also contacted me as I've been

researching this story. One of them

is Moika who spoke to me from

Chechnya about her daughter and two

small granddaughters who were with

ices in Mosul and who are now lost.

-- Isis.

Here is a family video of other

browsers -- Russians living under

Moika in Rucker in Syria, Isis

wanted children like this to belong

to the Islamic State with their

fathers died, over some of the

mostly dead as ices has fallen and

desperate grandparents back in

Russia have no idea what has

happened to the women and children.

Grandmothers like her have asked me

to find out anything I can. And

finally, I do get a clue. I've just

heard that a kidnapped Yezidi girl

has been reunited with her

relatives. She was rescued from one

of hundreds of foreign Isis families

detained by the Iraqi authorities

after the group's defeat. Worse,

some of the role lost Russian

children's were there with her. --

were some of the lost Russian

children there with her? Whether

other children in the prison?

I showed her the photos I'd been

sent by Russian grandmothers.

Were any of these children with her

in the detention camp where there

were so many foreign families?

Really? She said she didn't know the

girl's name but I recognise her

also. She's the daughter of one of

the women sent desperate messages as

they tried to flee Isis. Later I

discovered that her family has

survived and will soon be sent back

to Russia. But what of the other

lost children on searching for?

A

child looks familiar. But I don't

know. They all - of a Olesen the

same family?

Yes. OK. There were

1402 arrived at one of our emergency

science, it wasn't something we were

expecting. I don't think any of the

children ever smiled. Thus, any of

us. Aid worker Melanie Markham saw

the same foreign families who the

girl was with in this counter

displaced people before they were

taken to the detention centre. No

names of those there have been

released by the authorities. Some of

the mothers may now be prosecuted

for complicity in Isis crimes. It

Melanie believes the children should

be returned to other relatives.

Two

thirds of this group were children.

So they would never be charged with

a crime. And I saw tiny babies, what

are they guilty of? So those

children need to be with their

families. And with people who care

for them. And whatever way that can

happen, the authorities and

humanitarian organisations need to

work together to ensure that.

But

the suffering of Isis wives and

children in the little to Yezidi

families. They have lost far more.

Gathering to welcome her back, but

also lament her murdered father and

her mother, sister, and brother, all

kidnapped and still missing. A

19-year-old Yezidi has returned. Her

father was murdered when Isis took

over their village three years ago.

She was taken prisoner, along with

her two sisters, and they all

suffered more than three years of

sexual slavery, passed from one Isis

rapist to another. But today, she is

going for a ceremony that is meant

to help cleanse women like her.

I have come to the Yezidi holiest

place, Lalish, a complex of shrines

where her people have celebrated

their unique religion for hundreds

of years. A religion Isis regarded

as devil worship. Yezidi children

have always come here for a form of

baptism that now, the ceremony is

repeated the those returning from

Isis captivity.

Before leaving Lalish, the other

prescribed rituals that the girl,

her sisters and her brother should

also perform. Reconnecting with

their faith comfort them, they say,

that they are not planning to stay

here in their historic homeland.

Now, what do you think? Your future

will be?

Do you believe -- you would leave

all of these platers behind question

mark you live Lalish, you would

leave these places forever?

One ceremony involves throwing a

cloth of a pillar and if it lands,

it is good luck, and it is something

that all of the victims of Isis

desperately deserve now.

But what this family is pushing for

its asylum in Australia and many of

the Yezidis want to live also. Isis

may be defeated but they know that

escaping the black shadow it is cast

over the region will take much, much

longer.