Britain in UN 'list of shame' for not repatriating women and kids from Syrian camps
11 February, 2021
The UN has named and shamed a lot more than 50 nations for failing woefully to repatriate almost 10,000 people, mainly women and children, associated with ISIS who are being held in "sub-human" conditions in camps in north-east Syria.
Britain, the US, France and Sweden happen to be among the nations being criticised simply by UN rights specialists who are urging them to take "immediate" action.
There are 9,462 women and children among the 64,600 persons being held in "squalid" conditions at the Al Hol and Roj camps, which are run by Syrian Kurdish authorities. Almost all of the residents happen to be Iraqis and Syrians.
The UN has listed the 57 nations who've failed to act on what has been dubbed a "list of shame" by Fionnuala Ni Aolain, the UN special rapporteur on protecting individual rights.
"The matter is among excessive urgency," she said.
"The camps carry over 64,000 persons, mostly women and children. Most of them are very vulnerable. Many of them are experiencing a variety of human rights concerns that require states to do something expediently."
She criticised a rise in "nationality stripping", saying it was unlawful to leave someone stateless.
"These women and kids are moving into what can only just be referred to as horrific and sub-human conditions," Ms Ni Aolain said.
"The types of conditions in these camps might reach the threshold of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment under overseas law."
Some women have been "groomed online" to marry ISIS fighters, while children "had no say in what brought them there", she said.
The UN said previous month it had received reports of 12 Syrian and Iraqi nationals being murdered in the first half of January at Al Hol, which holds internal refugees and groups of ISIS fighters.
Canada, Finland and Kazakhstan own repatriated some nationals, Ms Ni Aolain said, welcoming a good "trickle of returns".
But others, like the UK, have only repatriated kids.
In November, Sweden repatriated four women and nine children, but the other day it was revealed among the women has been charged with war crimes and her children have already been taken into care.
The UK has only repatriated a small number of unaccompanied children and orphans from the camps.
It really is estimated around 60 British youngsters are found in the camps living with their moms, whom the British federal government refuses to repatriate.
The Home Office has said there are “legitimate security concerns” about the go back of orphans from Syria.
“Returnees, even children, certainly are a security risk,” it all previously said. “Our perspective can be that repatriations can only just be looked at on a case-by-circumstance basis.”
This past year, former UK schoolgirl and ISIS recruit Shamima Begum challenged the UK's decision to strip her of her British citizenship.
in July, the Court of Charm unanimously agreed that Begum, now 21, could only appeal fairly and effectively if she was allowed back to Britain.
But the OFFICE AT HOME took the case to the Supreme Court to challenge that decision on the lands that she nonetheless poses a threat to national protection and is awaiting the result.
Ms Ni Aolain has compared the "illegal detention" of the Syrian camp detainees to that of protection suspects held in the US prison found in Guantanamo Bay for years without charge.
"These women and kids are a convenient battering ram on all the fears of state and the general public," Ms Ni Aolain explained. "They are made items of hate, ridicule and shame."
She said she had conveyed her requirements in detailed letters to each country concerned, including Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Pakistan, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States.
"It is the first-time that these 57 states have already been named alongside one another," said Ms Ni Aolain.
"This isn't a club you would like to belong to."
Some 48 % of the 64,000 people in the camp are Iraqis, 37 % are Syrians and 15 % are third-country nationals.
The are the groups of ISIS fighters, which seized swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014. The Iraqi and Syrian residents of the camp largely fled subsequent fighting between ISIS and Kurdish forces.
Last month, the UN's counterterrorism chief, Vladimir Voronkov, told a casual meeting of the UN Security Council that “the horrific situation of the kids on Al Hol [camp] is one of the most pressing issues in the world today.”
He urged countries to repatriate the 27,000 kids stranded in the camp and said they “remain stranded, abandoned with their fate,” vulnerable to being preyed in by ISIS enforcers, “and at risk of radicalisation within the camp".
Source: www.thenationalnews.com