A United Nations expert has expressed concern about the arbitrary detention of tens of thousands of children in northeastern Syria. Fionnuala Ni Aolain, a U.N. Special Rapporteur, voiced her worries after visiting the region and witnessing the “snatching” of hundreds of boys from camps. The detained children, many of whom are housed in detention camps after fleeing from areas held by Islamic State (IS) during the Syrian conflict, are being held based on their alleged ties to the group, violating international law.
Ni Aolain, the first U.N. human rights expert to visit the region, highlighted the mass indefinite and arbitrary detention of children, particularly boys, in various facilities such as camps, prisons, and centers. These detentions are based on the perceived security threat posed by the children or their parents’ alleged prior links with IS.
One of the places Ni Aolain visited was the al-Hol camp, which is managed by the Kurdish-run authorities. The camp currently holds around 55,000 people, including 31,000 children, and accommodates third-party nationals from Western countries, despite U.N. pressure to repatriate them.
The conditions at al-Hol were described as “dire and extreme” by Ni Aolain, who emphasized that the individuals in the camp are not free to come and go. Given this situation, she argued that the term “camp” is inappropriate. She also raised concerns about the separation of adolescent boys from their mothers, which is based on perceived security risks. However, Ni Aolain did not disclose where these boys were taken to.
The practice of forcibly removing boys who reach the ages of 10 or 12 from the camps and separating them from their mothers, as reported in February, was labeled unlawful by U.N. rights experts. The SDF-affiliated autonomous administration, responsible for managing the camps, claimed that the report was “far from the truth” and justified the removals as a precaution to prevent extremism.
Ni Aolain stressed that the detention of children in an unending cycle of detention is a violation of international law. She also noted that the snatching of children causes significant suffering and psychological harm to the families. The U.N. expert called for urgent action to address the situation and for the repatriation of the families of IS fighters in the camps.
Reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva; Editing by Tom Perry and Matthew Lewis
Credit: The Star : News Feed
