Share this
Human Rights Watch (HRW)* released a report on Thursday, concerning foreigners accused of Islamic State (ISIS) affiliations who are being kept in camps, prisons and rehabilitation centres across the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), often in dire circumstances.
HRW calls foreign governments to claim their citizens and bring them home to try them. HRW also criticises some countries, such as the United Kingdom (UK) and Denmark who have revoked citizenship from their nationals being helped in AANES, leaving them stateless and violating their right to a nationality.
“The Autonomous Administration has repeatedly urged governments to repatriate their nationals and in the meantime to increase aid to ensure the detainees’ humane treatment. They have also called on governments to help regional authorities prosecute foreign ISIS suspects,” HRW said.
“It is very difficult for us to carry this burden on our own,” Abdulkarim Omar, the administration’s European envoy and former foreign relations co-chair, told Human Rights Watch.
HRW also pointed out how Turkey’s airstrikes and recent shelling have increased the level of danger of both the risk of an ISIS resurgence as well as worsened the living conditions of those inside the camp.
Detained individuals told HRW that following Turkey’s bombardment in November which hit dangerously close to al-Hawl camp and Cherkin prison, power and water were cut off in the camps and deliveries of necessary supplies and aid to detainees were temporarily halted.
Letta Tayler, associate crisis and conflict director at HRW commented on the situation, saying:
“Turkey’s attacks highlight the urgent need for all governments to help end the unlawful detention of their nationals in northeast Syria, allowing all to come home and prosecuting adults as warranted, for every person brought home, about seven remain in unconscionable conditions, and most are children.”
Camps in AANES hold more than 42,000 foreign ISIS affiliates, as well as local ISIS members and internally displaced people (IDP). Even though 34 countries have repatriated some of their nationals, the situation remains dire.
Read the full report here.
*Human Rights Watch (HRW) is a New York-based international non-governmental organisation (NGO) that conducts research and advocacy for human rights.
