Thousands of children in camps in Syria must be repatriated "urgently", warns Amnesty

The UN has sounded the alarm on several occasions about minors detained in camps in Syria, condemning the attitude of countries like France.

Here, a child in a camp in Quneitra, Syria, January 19, 2018 © Alaa Faqir, Reuters

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The NGO Amnesty International called on Tuesday, November 30, countries to repatriate foreign children locked up in camps in northeastern Syria to repatriate them urgently.

According to figures from the UN Commission of Inquiry, 27,000 child citizens of around 60 countries are detained in camps administered by the Kurdish-Syrian autonomous administration.

Among them are 200 French children whom Paris has still not repatriated.

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At least 27,000 foreign children are exposed to " 

appalling

 " and " 

potentially fatal and inhuman

 " conditions, according

to Amnesty International's statement

released on Tuesday, November 30.

Son of suspected jihadists, these minors from Syria, Iraq and

more than 60 countries

are arbitrarily deprived of their liberty with limited means of subsistence, subject to movement restrictions within the camp itself, in a climate of violence. ubiquitous, according to the NGO.

" 

They are given over to misery, trauma and death

," Diana Semaan, Syria researcher at Amnesty International, told AFP.

Governments must stop trampling on their human rights obligations and respect the right of these children to life, survival and development and organize their repatriation quickly and as a priority.

 "

Since the fall in March 2019 of the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS), tens of thousands of people have been detained in particular in the Al-Hol camp, mostly women and children " 

affiliated to varying degrees with the EI

 ”. Thousands more are stranded in the camp because they were fleeing the conflict, according to the NGO.

The Al-Hol camp is controlled by the Kurdish police of Assayesh.

The area, called the “ 

Annexe

 ”, accommodates women and children who are not from Iraq or Syria.

There, boys are withdrawn, from the age of 12, " 

arbitrarily

 " from their mother or from the people who take care of them " 

solely on the basis of suspicion of a potential

"

radicalization

"

 ", assures Amnesty on the basis of testimony.

" 

Consequences of life or death

 "

For Lynn Maalouf, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Amnesty International, countries must repatriate its minor nationals as soon as possible:

We are talking about 27,000 non-Syrian children.

So that includes Iraqi children, which is the vast majority.

And Iraq has already started to repatriate its nationals.

But that also includes all the other countries which are in the process of repatriating these children.

Because Iraq has started a slow repatriation process in 2021. But for other countries, it is done on a case-by-case basis,

like France

, which has been very reluctant to return its

nationals, estimated to at least 80 women and 200 children

.

We call on France and all the other countries which have nationals who still have children today who happen to be mainly in the two camps of displaced persons of Al-Hol and Al-Roj.

We recently carried out research on the conditions of the Al-Roj camp, the largest.

And what we found were appalling conditions.

So every day lost for these children has huge consequences, even life and death consequences.

For example, Canada, Germany and France are not taking the measures, at least in the emergency which is necessary given the situation on the ground.

For Amnesty International, "every day lost for these children has enormous consequences" in the Kurdish camps

Véronique Gaymard

" 

We do not know what is happening

 " in the 

 Kurdish "

rehabilitation centers

"

" 

We do not know exactly what is happening then in what the Kurds call

" rehabilitation centers " 

except that there is a real concern of access to essential needs (food, water, medical aid)

 ", continues- her about the camps.

Some Syrians are given permission to leave the camp permanently, a key that they do not necessarily grasp for fear of returning to areas controlled by the Syrian government, for fear of returning without their detained or missing male relatives or because of the high transport costs.

As for Iraqi children or third country nationals, " 

repatriation is the only chance to leave the camp

 ", insists Amnesty.

Multiple calls

This new appeal comes 12 days after

that of a group of lawyers and a parliamentarian

, who visited Iraq and northeastern Syria, precisely with the aim of discussing the fate of the families with the Kurdish authorities. French women currently detained in Syria.

" 

France abandons its children, its nationals, in camps in Kurdistan, at the mercy of deplorable sanitary conditions, at the mercy of Daesh which is taking back power in the camps

 ", declared the environmental deputy Hubert Julien-Laferrière during a press conference on November 18, regretting a "

catastrophic

 "

health situation 

.

The mission - the third since December 2020 - was carried out from October 30 to November 3 by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH), the National Bar Council (CNB), the association Avocats sans frontières (ASF ) France.

All demand " 

to organize without delay the repatriation to France of children and women of French nationality detained in Rojava

(northeastern Syria)

and to implement all possible actions to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid.

 ".

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