The mass detention of tens of thousands of women and children in northeast Syria is being denounced by a U.N. expert as a violation of international law and she is pleading with states to send their citizens back home, where they are allegedly subjected to brutal and inhumane treatment.
The U.N. special investigator on counterterrorism and human rights, Fionnuala Ni Aolain, presented a dismal report Friday after a six-day tour to Syria.
She added during a news conference that it was “completely unacceptable” that there were more than 40,000 individuals in a detention center, 60% of them were youngsters under the age of 12, and that nobody knew what was going on there.
It may be an understatement of the day to remark that this is a violation of international law.
Ni Aolain and her crew visited these past few days and visited jails and places of confinement in the al-Malikiyah city, the Qamishli, Gweiran, and al-Hol districts.
Tens of thousands of women and children, largely spouses, widows, and kids of Islamic State group militants, are detained in the huge al-Hol camp.
The U.S. has been pleading with nations to send back extremists’ family members for years, but these requests have generally gone unanswered. Either the people living in the camp are unable to provide proof of their citizenship, or their nation of origin is unwilling to admit IS supporters or former combatants.
However, states are required to return their citizens who are being held in Syrian detention facilities, according to Ni Aolain.
According to camp officials, the spouses of the Islamic State group violently rule the al-Hol camp in an effort to maintain the group’s existence years after its defeat. They have also started fires inside the camp, intimidated and attempted to kidnap the guards, and helped boys flee to join IS.
Since the start of 2021, according to the United Nations, more than 100 people—many of them women—have died at al-Hol camp.
The al-Hol and al-Roj camps, which are operated by the Kurdish, U.S.-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), are holding an estimated 52,000 individuals, primarily Iraqis and Syrians, including relatives of alleged Islamic State terrorists.
Ni Aolain spoke about the miserable conditions in the camp.
“What I was able to see firsthand, including the widespread arbitrary detention of children, incommunicado detention, disappearances, structural and systematic discrimination of detained persons based on their nationality, torture, cruel, and degrading treatment, as well as the deprivation of access to water, food, and healthcare”.
Ni Aolain declared that all of these issues “undermine the right to life” and that it is crucial that people return to their native countries.
The SDF seized al-Hol in October of last year, arresting hundreds of IS members and recovering weapons caches. NBC reported that the SDF has since improved security with assistance from the U.S.
NBC said that inquiries for comment on the humanitarian and security situation in the camp were not answered by representatives of the Syrian Democratic Forces.
According to the UN, 36 nations have returned 7,000 people since 2019, with 75% of them being women and children. At this pace, according to the nonprofit Save the Children, “it would take up to 30 years” to repatriate every child living in the two camps.
According to the nation’s official news agency, Ahmad Sahhaf, spokesman for the foreign ministry of Iraq, “putting an end to the issue of al-Hol camp has become a top national interest for Iraq.”
He urged the international community to pressure all nations with people present in the camp “to repatriate them as soon as possible in order to eventually close the camp” because it has developed into “a dangerous epicenter” for IS gatherings.
To be clear, Ni Aolain said, “Anyone seriously thinking about long-term security in this region who is not addressing the systematic and arbitrary detention of thousands of children is closing their eyes to the long-term security implications of what it means to hold children in these types of conditions of detention indefinitely.”
The special rapporteur claimed that she discussed her worries with officials at each detention facility.
“I was extremely clear about the possible human rights breaches implied by what I witnessed, especially among youngsters. The provocative rhetoric of “cubs of the caliphate,” “extremists,” or “terrorists” to describe 2-, 3-, 4-, or 5-year-olds born on this land without their consent is something we frequently see in media coverage of kids.
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