Albanian boy taken by radicalized mom to join ISIS reunites with family five years later

An Albanian boy who was taken by his mother to Syria years ago when she joined the Islamic State enjoyed an emotional reunion on Friday with his father and sisters in Rome.

Afrim Berisha had been searching for his son, Alvin, for nearly five years when he traveled to the Kurdish-controlled al-Hol refugee camp — a facility in Northern Syria, where dozens of former ISIS members’ family are still being held — with a camera crew earlier this year.

Alvin’s mother, radicalized by ISIS ideology, abandoned her family and whisked her son away to Syria in 2014. She died fighting just a few steps away from her child.

Carabinieri Col. Marco Rosi said the mother changed Alvin’s last name and “tried to make him forget his past” — including the family they left behind in Italy.

Bureaucracy and red tape prevented Berisha from bringing Alvin back home with him, but an October television special on their heartbreaking separation sparked a joint effort from the International Red Cross, Red Crescent and the Italian and Albania authorities to work to secure the boy’s release.

A police official said he was “always smiling” during his journey back from Syria.

Alvin, sporting a grin and bright red cap, on Friday reconnected with his father and two older sisters at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport, where they took turns hugging each other for extended periods of time. He walked with a slight limp as he hurried to embrace them — a reminder of his tragic time in ISIS controlled territories.

He got the injury during a bombing in Northeast Syria, which also claimed the lives of his mother, her new partner, his child and another child that they shared.

“All five of them were traveling together when they were surprised by a bombing,” said Carabinieri Gen. Giuseppe Spina. “Alvin is alive by a miracle.”

Some 70,000 people remain in the same al-Hol camp where Alvin was held. Most of them are women and children.

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