About 7,000 foreign children of suspected jihadists remain held in camps in north-eastern Syria and are at risk of attack and violence, the NGO Save the Children warned on Wednesday and called for their repatriation.
“This year, a record 517 women and children were repatriated from camps in northeastern Syria,” Save the Children said in a statement, but regretted that “7,000 children of foreign nationalities remain trapped and at risk of ‘attack and violence.’ are. .
While the NGO welcomes an increase in the number of repatriations of women and children from Al-Hol and Roj camps to 60% in 2022 compared to the previous year, it calls for “doing more for their repatriation”.
Since the Islamic State group’s territorial defeat in 2019, some 56,000 members of jihadists have been held in Kurdish-controlled al-Hol and Roj camps, where violence and deprivation are rampant.
Among them are more than 10,000 foreigners from around 60 countries, including French and other Europeans, who are housed separately in a part of the camp called “Annex”.
“Efforts must be stepped up to help the children living in the camps,” the NGO said, stressing that 2021 was the most violent year in Al-Hol.
That same year, 74 children died there, eight of whom were killed, according to the NGO.
In November, the UN condemned the “brutal murder” of two Egyptian girls whose bodies were found in Al-Hol sewers.
“These children are trapped in deplorable conditions and endangered on a daily basis, there is no time to waste,” said the NGO’s director of operations, Matt Sugrue.
“At the pace adopted by foreign governments, we will see some children grow into adults before they can leave these camps and return home,” he continues.
The NGO reports the testimony of Mariam, a 32-year-old Tunisian mother of five who has been living in Al-Hol’s “outbuilding” for four years. “It breaks my heart to see my children growing up in this place with no education (…)” she said.
“What stands between these children and a normal and safe life is the will of their governments,” Mr. Sugrue concludes.
Despite repeated admonitions from the Kurdish administration, most Western countries refuse to repatriate their citizens from these camps, contenting themselves with drop-by-drop returns for fear of possible terrorist attacks on their soil.
In March, Save The Children warned it would take 30 years to repatriate children from camps in the North East.