On winter nights, temperatures in northeastern Syria can drop below freezing. In the detention centers of jihadist families, rain is flooding the tents. The shortage of medicines and the lack of care pose a threat to the lives of the youngest, who are the first victims. Among these are some 700 to 750 children of foreign jihadists, including French, dispersed in the three camps for displaced people in north-eastern Syria.
In 2019, more than 370 miners died in one of them, Al-Hol camp, in particular "due to the cold and the lack of adequate heating," said a Red Crescent official. Kurdish.
"The states that have nationals in these detention centers know what is going on inside", denounced, Thursday January 16, Paulo Pinheiro, the president of the Independent and International Commission of Inquiry (IOC) on Syria , created in 2011 by the UN Human Rights Council. He considered it "scandalous" that countries do not get children out of these "prisons" more quickly. The UN investigators have stepped up to the plate, urging the countries concerned, including France, to repatriate these children and their mother.
The UN report, published on Thursday, explains that many of these children are in a "particularly precarious" situation because they do not have identity documents.
"The irresponsibility of the French government"
"This new finding is in line with the decisions of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which have already called for the repatriation of these children", underlines lawyer Marie Dosé, who defends around twenty French families awaiting the repatriation of around a hundred minors to France.
The children of the families she defends are "sick, they are cold and have less and less food because of the difficulties of transportation to the camps", says the lawyer contacted by France 24. "I inform the French state every week of this humanitarian disaster, but they are doing nothing, "she laments. Faced with silence, she denounced "the irresponsibility of the French government".
Since the fall in March 2019 of the Islamic State (OEI) "caliphate", proclaimed five years earlier, the international community has been faced with the puzzle of the repatriation of the families of jihadists captured or killed in Syria and Iraq.
Up to now, Paris considered that the French jihadists should be judged in the places where they committed their atrocities. She supported the principle of a judgment in Iraq. The Minister of Justice, Nicole Belloubet, however, spoke on Saturday, January 11, of the hypothesis of the repatriation of French jihadists detained by the Kurds in Syria. A position that was quickly denied by those around him.
According to Me Dosé, Paris has only repatriated 17 children, including 15 orphans. "The last repatriation took place in June, there has not been a single repatriation to France since", she is indignant. In Syria, the authorities estimate that 200 to 300 children of French jihadists remain detained in the Syrian Kurdish region.
Several wives of jihadists in the wild
An alarming situation, especially since the situation there deteriorated with the launch, in October, of a ground offensive by Turkey against the Kurdish forces. The camp of Aïn Issa, in particular, was deserted by the Kurdish guards in mid-October, after a bombardment nearby, allowing the flight of thousands of families or close relatives of jihadists, left to fend for themselves in the desert.
Of the ten French wives of OEI members who were Aïn Issa according to the lawyer, four accompanied by seven children managed to escape to join Turkey. They were deported to France on December 9 and not repatriated. What happened to the remaining six women? "They have evaporated into the wild. Perhaps they were recovered by the [organization] Islamic State, overtaken by Syrian militias, or soldiers of Bashar al-Assad to serve as currency", advances the lawyer, who hopes for a reaction from the French authorities before another episode of this kind occurs.
UN investigators are also calling on countries of origin of foreign fighters to repatriate the children, "and their caregivers" as soon as possible. To this end, they invite the states concerned to take "immediate steps to simplify the registration of their nationals born in Syria".
Stateless children
Born in areas formerly controlled by the Syrian opposition, these children are struggling to obtain their civil registration "because the documents provided by the armed groups are not recognized by the competent government authorities", details the report.
"States have well-defined obligations to protect children, including from statelessness. Failure to respect these fundamental principles would constitute a clear departure from this obligation," said Hanny Megally, member of the UN Commission of Inquiry in a statement. .
When present, "mothers should be repatriated with their children to ensure that the principle of the best interests of the child is respected," the report added.
In total, some 12,000 foreigners - 4,000 women and 8,000 children - have settled in three IDP camps in northeastern Syria, the vast majority in Al-Hol camp, according to statistics from the Kurdish authorities. Those over 12 find themselves in detention centers, alongside adults.
With AFP
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