LONDON -- The two sisters hadn鈥檛 seen each other for six years. And when they did meet, inside a detention camp in northeastern Syria, there was little time for hugs and tears.

This was a rescue mission to save a little girl named Zara, (not her real name) and after months of secret, gut-wrenching planning, it was about to happen.

Zara would be leaving, given up by her mother and taken to Canada, far away from the harrowing conditions of life inside Roj camp. They call it a camp. It鈥檚 really a prison.

Unlike anywhere else in the world, most of the inmates in this prison are young children, stranded in Syria by an act of fate: their mothers were married to ISIS fighters. For that, they were locked away, never sure what their crimes were. Worse, their children were punished with them.

I have pictures of Zara from the early months of her detention鈥攁 listless little girl with white marks staining her forehead. She would have been two or three years old then.

鈥淭he water is so salty that my daughter sweats and has white salt marks all over her scalp and body,鈥� her mother told me in June of 2019.

鈥淚鈥檓 now extremely worried because there is a cholera outbreak in the camp.鈥�

Almost two years later, she was preparing to give her daughter up. She texted me again on a smuggled phone.

鈥淭o be honest, I kept on a brave face till the end. But my priority is the future of my daughter, who has already lost two years of her life here.鈥�

There was paperwork to sign鈥攃ustody documents鈥攁nd fifteen minutes later, mother and child were separated. Perhaps forever, which seems unimaginable.

鈥淎fter thinking long and hard, I knew it was the right thing to do. Regardless of what happens to me.鈥�

A former U.S. diplomat, Peter Galbraith, stepped in where Canada has refused to go. He has strong connections to the Kurdish administration in Northeastern Syria and agreed to help save the child.

I asked him: why?

鈥淚 suppose the answer is鈥ecause I can.鈥�

Zara was taken out of Syria by her aunt, driven to the Iraqi city of Erbil, and from there, flew on to Canada. Days earlier she was living in a tent in the desert.

鈥淭his was a case of a mother who wanted to send her child out,鈥� Galbraith told me from Dubai. 鈥淭here was no forcible separation. It was a voluntary decision, which Canada rightly facilitated.鈥�

In fact, Canada鈥檚 role was instrumental in getting the child out, though downplayed by a prime minister who sounds skittish and defensive every time he鈥檚 asked about the Canadians held in Syria.

A diplomat from Baghdad personally delivered custody and travel documents to the aunt in Erbil鈥攁 level of co-operation that suggests a change of attitude in Ottawa.

Galbraith, in the role of Samaritan, has offered to bring out more Canadian children, but of course their mothers will be left behind. It鈥檚 both tantalizing and agonizing. 

鈥淚f there, there are mothers who want to put their children first and have them go from a prison camp to a life in Canada, that door is open,鈥� he told me.

And what of the women left in the camp, what hope do they have?

鈥淚f governments were going to take back their citizens, they would have done so by now.鈥�