NEW YORK: UN human-rights experts on Tuesday urged 57 countries whose nationals are detained in the notorious Al-Hol and Roj detention camps in northeastern Syria to repatriate them “without delay.”
They warned that failure to do so could be tantamount to torture under international law.
The experts raised the alarm about the worsening security situation and deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the overcrowded camps, which are home to more than 90,000 Syrians, Iraqis and “third-country nationals.” Most are women and children with family connections to Daesh fighters.
The majority of residents were moved to the camps in 2019 following the defeat of Daesh in the eastern province of Deir Ez-Zor, the group’s last stronghold. However several thousand have been in Al-Hol since 2016.
“The continued detention, on unclear grounds, of women and children in the camps is a matter of grave concern and undermines the progression of accountability, truth and justice,” said 12 special rapporteurs in a joint statement.
Special rapporteurs are independent experts who serve in individual capacities and on a voluntary basis at the UN’s Human Rights Council. They are not members of UN staff and are not paid for their work.
They painted a bleak picture of life in the camps, where an unknown number of detainees have already died because of the poor conditions. They highlighted high levels of violence, exploitation, abuse and deprivation — and said nations that continue to allow their citizens to be subjected to such conditions might be guilty of torture under international law.
“Knowingly leaving nationals outside the protection of the rule of law is both a possible contravention of the state’s obligations under international human-rights law, and risks being counterproductive,” the experts said.
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, an Irish lawyer specializing in human rights law, is a special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism.
She told Arab News: “When you leave thousands of women and children in an arid desert in subhuman conditions, without access to education, health or even the most basic human-rights protections, you create the conditions conducive for radicalization and violence, (particularly among) younger people in the camps, given the lack of exit opportunities for them.
“It does not take a UN human rights expert body for states to understand that. So if states are thinking about their long-term security interests, as concerns their nationals (in the camps), they would repatriate (them). Because if they leave the situation as it is, the danger and the security issues will only increase — not only for the individuals in the camps but for the broader security of the states concerned.”
During the most recent meeting of the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria, members were asked to address this issue of foreign nationals held in the camps. British ambassador Barbara Woodward reiterated that the UK government is opposed to repatriating its citizens from the camps on the grounds that alleged criminals should be prosecuted in the country where the crime took place.
But Ní Aoláin said: “There is zero chance that there will be trials in northeastern Syria. It is obvious to everyone that neither Syria nor Iraq are capable of running the scale and complexity of trials that are involved, if such trials are justified.
“There are deep and profound concerns about fair trials being run in either of those states. And I take it that we do not assume that the non-state actors will be running trials on behalf of the states. So this (the British argument) is an illusionary argument because no trials are forthcoming.
“What it allows certain states to do is to pretend to create a facade of accountability, when the only real accountability for victims of terrorism in Iraq and Syria is the return of those people who have committed such crimes to countries that are capable of running these trials.”
The rapporteurs also raised concerns about the large-scale collection of sensitive, personal biometric data from women and children by the Syrian Democratic Forces in July last year.
“We have concerns that this data was shared with countries of origin and that no consent to the data collection or sharing was given by the women and children who were subjected to it,” said Ní Aoláin.
“We are deeply concerned that the data collection and sharing will be used to further deprive these individuals of certain inalienable rights — including, for example, their rights to citizenship and their rights to be treated equally.”
The experts reminded the 57 states with nationals in the camps that the repatriation process must be carried out in accordance with international human-rights law, they must refrain from exposing individuals to further human-rights violations when they return home, and must actively support their social and psychological re-integration into society.
Ní Aoláin said the list of 57 countries that have failed to repatriate their citizens is “really a list of shame. It speaks to a collective security and human-rights failure by states.”
She added: “States should not want to be on this list — and many states are working actively, including during (the COVID-19 pandemic), to get themselves off this list.
“Some states are making no efforts in that regard but are engaging in what can only be described as pedantic justifications for a policy that is both a failed security policy and the human rights-deficient and morally bankrupt policy of failure to return their most vulnerable citizens to their countries of origin.”
Nations warned of consequences of abandoning citizens in Syrian camps
https://arab.news/bd2qc
Nations warned of consequences of abandoning citizens in Syrian camps
- Human-rights experts say not only are some countries ignoring responsibilities, they are creating the perfect conditions for radicalization
- More than 90,000 people, mostly women and children related to Daesh fighters, live in increasingly desperate conditions in detention camps
Syrian leader to visit Turkiye on Tuesday: presidency
Sharaa “will pay a visit to Ankara on Tuesday at the invitation of our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” Fahrettin Altun, head of communications at the presidency, said on X.
Car bomb explosion near Syrian Arab Republic’s Manbij kills 15
DAMASCUS: A car bomb on Monday killed 15 people, mostly women farm workers, in the northern Syrian city of Manbij where Kurdish forces are battling Turkiye-backed groups, state media reported.
Citing White Helmet rescuers, SANA news agency said there had been a “massacre” on a local road, with “the explosion of a car bomb near a vehicle transporting agricultural workers” killing 14 women and one man.
The attack also wounded 15 women, some critically, SANA said, adding the toll could rise.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
It was the second such attack in recent days in war-ravaged Syrian Arab Republic, where Islamist-led rebels toppled autocratic president Bashar Assad in December.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported nine people, including an unspecified number of pro-Turkiye fighters, killed Saturday “when a car bomb exploded near a military position” in Manbij.
Turkiye-backed forces in Syria’s north launched an offensive against the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in November, capturing several Kurdish-held enclaves in the north despite US efforts to broker a ceasefire.
With US support, the SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted the Daesh group from Syrian Arab Republic in 2019.
But Turkiye accuses the main component of the group – the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – of being affiliated with the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Both Turkiye and the United States have designated the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil, a terrorist group.
Syrian Arab Republic’s new rulers have called on the SDF to hand over their weapons, rejecting demands for any kind of Kurdish self-rule.
Assad ruled Syrian Arab Republic with an iron fist and his bloody crackdown down on anti-government protests in 2011 sparked a war that killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.
Israeli prime minister in Washington for Gaza ceasefire talks
- Netanyahu told reporters he would discuss "victory over Hamas"
- Trump said Sunday that negotiations with Israel and other countries in the Middle East were "progressing"
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to begin talks Monday on brokering a second phase of the ceasefire with Hamas, his office said, as he visits the new Trump administration in Washington.
Ahead of his departure, Netanyahu told reporters he would discuss "victory over Hamas", contending with Iran and freeing all hostages when he meets with President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
It will be Trump's first meeting with a foreign leader since returning to the White House in January, a prioritisation Netanyahu called "telling".
"I think it's a testimony to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance," he said before boarding his flight.
He was welcomed to the US capital on Sunday night by Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, who stressed the coming Trump-Netanyahu meeting would strengthen "the deep alliance between Israel and the United States and will enhance our cooperation".
Trump, who has claimed credit for sealing the ceasefire deal after 15 months of war, said Sunday that negotiations with Israel and other countries in the Middle East were "progressing".
"Bibi (Benjamin) Netanyahu's coming on Tuesday, and I think we have some very big meetings scheduled," Trump said.
Netanyahu's office said he would begin discussions with Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday over terms for the second phase of the truce.
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are meanwhile due to resume this week.
The initial, 42-day phase of the deal is due to end next month.
The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and to include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.
Trump has said that 15 months of fighting has reduced the Palestinian territory to a "demolition site" and has repeatedly touted a plan to "clean out" the Gaza Strip, calling for Palestinians to move to neighbouring countries such as Egypt or Jordan.
Qatar, which jointly mediated the ceasefire along with the US and Egypt, underscored on Sunday the importance of allowing Palestinians to "return to their homes and land".
"We emphasised the importance of concerted efforts to intensify the entry of humanitarian aid and rehabilitate the Strip to make it livable and to stabilise the Palestinian people in their land," Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said following a meeting with Turkey's foreign minister.
Under the ceasefire's first phase, Hamas was to free 33 hostages in staggered releases in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
The truce has also led to a surge of food, fuel, medical and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza, while displaced Palestinians have been allowed to begin returning to the north.
During their October 7, 2023 attack, Hamas militants took 251 hostages, 91 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory response has killed at least 47,283 people in Gaza, a majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, figures which the UN considers reliable.
While Trump's predecessor Joe Biden sustained Washington's military and diplomatic backing of Israel, it also distanced itself from the mounting death toll and aid restrictions.
Trump moved quickly to reset relations.
In one of his first acts back in office, he lifted sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians and reportedly approved a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that the Biden administration had blocked.
The ceasefire discussions in Washington are expected to also cover concessions Netanyahu must accept to revive normalisation efforts with Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh froze discussions early in the Gaza war and hardened its stance, insisting on a resolution to the Palestinian issue before making any deal.
Trump believes "that he must stabilise the region first and create an anti-Iran coalition with his strategic partners," including Israel and Saudi Arabia, said David Khalfa, a researcher at the Jean Jaures Foundation in Paris.
But Netanyahu faces intense pressure from within his cabinet to resume the war, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatening to quit and strip the prime minister of his majority.
On the ground, Israel said Sunday it has killed at least 50 militants and detained more than 100 "wanted individuals" during an operation in the West Bank.
The massive offensive began on January 21 with the Israeli military saying it aimed to root out Palestinian armed groups from the Jenin area, which has long been a hotbed of militancy.
On Sunday, Palestinian official news agency WAFA said Israeli forces "simultaneously detonated about 20 buildings" in the eastern part of Jenin refugee camp, adding that the "explosions were heard throughout Jenin city and parts of the neighbouring towns".
The Palestinian health ministry meanwhile said the Israeli military killed a 73-year-old man and a 27-year-old in separate incidents in the West Bank on Sunday.
Violence has surged across the West Bank since the Gaza war broke out in October 2023.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 883 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 30 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Trump’s aid freeze shocks a Syria camp holding families linked to the Daesh group
- US-funded organization abruptly suspends aid activities at the sprawling Al-Hol tent camp
- Aid organization works under the supervision of the US-led coalition formed to fight Daesh
AL-HOL, Syrian Arab Republic: Ahmad Abdullah Hammoud was lucky to have some food stored to feed his family after a US-funded organization abruptly suspended its aid activities at the sprawling tent camp in northeastern Syrian Arab Republic where they have been forced to stay for nearly six years.
His family is among 37,000 people, mostly women and children, with alleged ties to the Daesh group at the bleak, trash-strewn Al-Hol camp, where the Trump administration’s unprecedented freeze on foreign aid caused chaos and uncertainty and worsened the dire humanitarian conditions.
When the freeze was announced shortly after Trump took office, US-funded aid programs worldwide began shutting down operations, including the
Aid organization works under the supervision of the US-led coalition formed to fight Daesh.
The US-based Blumont briefly suspended operations, according to the camp’s director. It had been providing essentials such as bread, water, kerosene and cooking gas. Blumont didn’t reply to questions.
“We were troubled when Blumont suspended its activities,” said Hammoud, who denies links with Daesh and had been sheltering in an Daesh -controlled area after being displaced during Syrian Arab Republic’s civil war.
“Believe me, we did not find food. Even bread only came at 2 p.m.,” said another camp resident, Dirar Al-Ali.
Camp director Jihan Hanan told The Associated Press that other aid agencies, including the World Health Organization, had ceased some operations.
“It is a disgraceful decision,” Hanan said of the Trump administration’s action, adding that some residents argued they should be allowed to leave if food cannot be provided.
She said Blumont distributes 5,000 bags of bread daily at a cost of about $4,000, something that local authorities in the Kurdish-run enclave cannot afford.
Uncertain times ahead
Hanan said Blumont received a two-week waiver from the Trump administration and resumed work on Jan. 28. It is not clear what will happen once the waiver ends.
Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces that control northeastern Syrian Arab Republic, said he has raised the aid freeze issue with officials from the US-led coalition.
“We are on the verge of finding an alternative to this decision,” Abdi said, adding that an exemption might be issued for northeastern Syrian Arab Republic.
The US freeze comes as Daesh tries to take advantage of the vacuum created by the fall of Assad’s government in early December to insurgents. Another cut in food supplies could lead to riots by camp residents that Daesh, which has sleeper cells there, could exploit.
Hanan said the camp had received information from the US-led coalition against Daesh, the Iraqi government and the US-backed and Kurdish-led SDF, that Daesh was preparing to attack the camp after Assad’s fall. Security was increased and the situation is under control, she said.
The SDF runs 28 detention facilities in northeastern Syrian Arab Republic holding some 9,000 Daesh members. Security at Al-Hol camp and the detention facilities are not expected to be affected by the US aid freeze, according to Hanan and an official at the largest detention facility in the northeastern city of Hassakeh, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The main part of Al-Hol houses some 16,000 Iraqis and 15,000 Syrians. In a separate, heavily guarded section known as the Annex are another 6,300 people from 42 countries, the vast majority of them wives, widows and children who are considered the most die-hard Daesh supporters.
The camp has no paved roads and piles of trash. Teenagers and children with almost nothing to do spend their time playing soccer or wandering around.
Children in the Annex threw stones at visiting AP journalists and shouted “You are a Satan” and “The Islamic State is lasting.”
’Sustenance is from God’
A Chinese woman in the Annex, who identified herself as Asmaa Ahmad and said she came from the western region of Xinjiang, described her husband as “an Islamic State martyr” killed in 2019 in the eastern Syrian Arab Republic village of Baghouz, where Daesh lost the last sliver of land it once controlled.
Ahmad, who is in the camp with her four children, said she does not want to go back to China, fearing persecution. Asked about the temporary loss of US aid, she replied: “Sustenance is from God.”
She said she is waiting for Daesh members to rescue her family one day.
Al-Hol is the most dangerous place in the world, camp director Hanan asserted, adding that countries should repatriate their citizens to prevent children being fed the extremist ideology. “This place is not suitable for children,” she said.
The US military has been pushing for years for countries who have citizens at Al-Hol and the smaller, separate Roj Camp to repatriate them.
“Without international repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration efforts, these camps risk creating the next generation of Daesh,” Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, head of US Central Command, said during a visit to Al-Hol in mid-January.
Hanan said that since the fall of Assad, many Syrians in the camp have expressed a desire to return to their homes in areas held by the country’s new rulers. She said camp authorities decided that any Syrian who wants to leave can go.
Even if the camp population drops, “there will be a disaster” if US aid is suspended again, she added.
Qatar’s prime minister calls on Hamas, Israel to begin immediate talks on Gaza ceasefire phase two
- Israel and Hamas last month reached complex three-phase accord that halted fighting in Gaza
- Hamas has released 18 hostages in exchange for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinians
DOHA: Qatar’s prime minister on Sunday called on Israel and Hamas to immediately begin negotiating phase two of the Gaza ceasefire, adding that there is no clear plan for when talks will begin.
“We demand (Hamas and Israel) to engage immediately as stipulated in the agreement,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said at a press conference held jointly with Turkiye’s foreign minister in the Qatari capital Doha on Sunday.
According to the ceasefire agreement, negotiations on implementing the second phase of the deal should begin before the 16th day of phase one of the ceasefire, which is Monday.
Israel and Hamas last month reached a complex three-phase accord that has halted the fighting in Gaza. Hamas has so far released 18 hostages in exchange for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
There are more than 70 hostages still held in Gaza.
The second stage of the accord is expected to include Hamas releasing all remaining hostages held in Gaza, a permanent end to hostilities and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave.
“There is nothing yet clear about where the delegations will come and when it’s going to take place,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
Mediators have engaged with Hamas and Israel over the phone and Qatar has set an agenda for the next phase of negotiations, he said.
“We hope that we start to see some movement in the next few days. It’s critical that we get things rolling from now in order to get to an agreement before day 42.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he would begin negotiations on phase two of the agreement on Monday in Washington, when he is set to meet US President Donald Trump’s Middle East Envoy, Steve Witkoff.
During his meeting with Witkoff, Netanyahu will discuss Israel’s positions in respect to the ceasefire, the prime minister’s office said. Witkoff will then speak with officials from Egypt and Qatar, who have mediated between Israel and Hamas over the past 15 months with backing from Washington.
