QAMISHLI: Repatriations of foreign woman and children affiliated to Daesh from detention camps in northeast Syria hit a record high in 2022, Kurdish authorities said on Tuesday.
Thousands of foreigners including women and children had gone to Syria to live in Daesh’s so-called “caliphate” until 2019, when US-backed Kurdish forces snatched the last pocket of Syrian territory from the jihadists.
Fleeing women and children were housed in overcrowded detention camps run by Kurdish authorities and international NGOs, who had pushed for repatriatiations due to rising violence and dire conditions in the camps.
Governments responded slowly, fearing security threats and a public backlash over the return of individuals radicalized by Daesh.
But the pace picked up his year, with 517 women and children repatriated so far, according to Kurdish authorities’ statistics.
They included more than 100 from France and over 50 from Germany. More than 150 were returned to Tajikistan, the first for that country.
Returns numbered 324 in 2021, 281 in 2020 and 342 in 2019.
More than 10,000 foreign women and children remain in the Al-Hol and Roj camps, Badran Jia Kurd, a senior official in the autonomous administration, told Reuters.
Letta Tayler, Human Rights Watch’s counter-terrorism lead, said the rise could be due in part to criticism by the United Nations and the European Court of Human Rights of European countries’ failure to repatriate their nationals.
Also, states had found they had the legal farmework to prosecute and jail those who had traveled to Daesh-held territory, making those governments more willing to bring them home, Tayler added.
But she said 2022’s figures “are still drops in the bucket.”
“This humanitarian and security crisis will only get worse if countries keep outsourcing management of their detained nationals to a non-state force inside one of the world’s most complex war zones,” Tayler said.
Record number of foreigners repatriated from Daesh camps in Syria this year
https://arab.news/j4twx
Record number of foreigners repatriated from Daesh camps in Syria this year
UN warns of abuse of Palestinians returning to Gaza through Rafah crossing
- Human Rights Office describes pattern of ill-treatment, abuse and humiliation of returnees by Israeli forces, and by armed Palestinians allegedly backed by Israeli military
- Meanwhile, reports continue of airstrikes, gunfire and shelling across Gaza, and Israeli forces demolish a UN-run school
NEW YORK CITY: The Rafah crossing on the border between Gaza and Egypt opened for a fourth consecutive day on Thursday, allowing a limited number of people to pass through.
However, the UN voiced concerns about reported mistreatment of Palestinians returning to the war-ravaged enclave.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also said reports continue across civilian areas in Gaza of airstrikes, gunfire and shelling, resulting in casualties and damage to infrastructure.
And Israeli forces on Wednesday demolished Jabalya Preparatory Boys’ School in northern Gaza, OCHA said. Run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, it was the last remaining school in a compound of six. Its destruction means the entire educational complex has been razed to the ground.
A limited flow of people were allowed to use the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s main physical connection to the outside world, for four days in a row since it reopened on Monday, OCHA said. Only 98 returnees were received by UN teams inside Gaza between Monday and Thursday, it added, and the crossing remains closed on Fridays.
The UN Human Rights Office warned of what it described as a pattern of ill-treatment, abuse and humiliation of returnees by Israeli forces, and by armed Palestinians allegedly backed by the Israeli military.
According to accounts collected by the UN’s Human Rights Office, armed Palestinians handcuffed and blindfolded returnees, threatened and intimidated them, conducted searches and stole personal belongings and money. Returnees also reported violence, degrading interrogations and invasive body searches upon arrival at Israeli checkpoints.
The accounts point to conduct that violates the rights of Palestinians to personal security and dignity, and freedom from torture and other ill-treatment, the Human Rights Office said.
Meanwhile, the UN said it attempted to coordinate 11 humanitarian missions with the Israeli authorities on Wednesday and Thursday. Six were fully facilitated, but four faced lengthy delays at holding points along designated routes. Two of those missions were only partially completed, the other two eventually went ahead despite the delays.
A mission to monitor humanitarian cargo at the Kissufim crossing, east of Khan Younis, was denied on Wednesday after the crossing was closed.
The purposes of the missions included the collection of water, sanitation supplies, fuel and other items, medical evacuations through the Rafah crossing, and the transportation of returnees to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, OCHA said.
