At least 47 Canadians are being held in “overcrowded, filthy, and life-threatening” conditions at camps in northeast Syria for associations with ISIS - among them 26 children, including a 5-year-old orphan, according to the report.
“None of the Canadians... have been charged with any crime, or even brought before a judge to review the legality and necessity of their detention, making their continuing captivity arbitrary and unlawful,” reads the report, entitled “Bring Me Back to Canada.”
“This report finds that the government of Canada is flouting its international human rights obligations toward Canadians who are arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria and providing inadequate support to family members seeking to provide their loved ones with essentials such as food and medicine, and to bring them home,” it adds.
Some 14,000 non-Iraqi foreign nationals with suspected ties to ISIS - from some 60 countries worldwide - are being held at facilities across northeast Syria, most notably the camps of Roj and al-Hol in Hasaka province. Most were rounded up by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) after the fall of Baghouz, the last bastion of ISIS before the militant extremist group’s territorial defeat in Syria in March 2019.
A number of countries have repatriated some of their nationals, the most recent being France, which took back ten children dubbed “orphan and humanitarian” cases in June.
Canadian leaders have said it is “too dangerous” to send its diplomatic officials to northeast Syria to facilitate the repatriations, while Global Affairs, Canada’s foreign ministry, told a number of the relatives of ISIS detainees in contact with HRW that difficulty communicating with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES, often abbreviated to AA), the non-state ruling authority that runs the region and camps within it, has impeded repatriation.
“The Government of Canada is aware of Canadian citizens being detained by Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria and is particularly concerned with cases of Canadian children in Syria,” Global Affairs spokesperson Barbara Harvey told Rudaw English via email on Monday.
“Given the security situation on the ground and the current COVID-19 context, the Government of Canada's ability to provide any kind of consular assistance in Syria remains extremely limited,” Harvey added.
The HRW report cast doubt on coronavirus and national security concerns entirely preventing returns from the camp, pointing to the repatriations of 29 Canadians from Syria - and thousands more from across the globe - in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“If Canada can bring home tens of thousands of citizens from around the world in a matter of weeks, surely it can find a way to repatriate fewer than 50 others trapped in horrific conditions in northeast Syria,” Letta Tayler, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch said in a press release. “The lives of Canadians are on the line, and the time to bring them home is now.”
‘Inadequate or non-existent’ support
“Canadian consular officials are actively engaged with Syrian Kurdish authorities to seek information on Canadians in their custody,” Harvey told Rudaw English.
“We continue to monitor the situation very closely. Due to provisions of the Privacy Act, no further information can be disclosed.”
But according to the report, “none of the 11 family members said they had information that a Canadian consular official had contacted their detained relatives in northeast Syria. They also said they had no information on what steps, if any, their government has taken to monitor the health, wellbeing, and treatment of their loved ones, including the 26 children.”
“Family members interviewed by Human Rights Watch said assistance from officials at Global Affairs or its consular services section was inadequate or non-existent despite their repeated pleas to the government to repatriate relatives held in northeast Syria or to help them do so, or even to improve their relatives’ conditions of detention,” reads the report.
‘Inhuman’ camp conditions
Relatives of Canadian detainees described dire conditions to HRW, including apparent malnutrition in children, and repeated infections with illnesses like hepatitis due to poor sanitary conditions. In messages to his family, Canadian detainee Jack Letts alleged torture by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) running the prison where he was being held, according to the report - mistreatment the NES has previously denied.
NES officials “did not respond” to HRW’s May and June requests for updates on camp conditions. Rudaw English contacted Sheikhmus Ahmed, head of the internally displaced persons (IDP) and refugee office for the NES, who said that while the situation at Roj camp is manageable, conditions at the far larger al-Hol are beyond their limited capabilities.
The international community “asks for standards to be implemented, but we just can’t do it,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed declined to answer questions on international humanitarian support for the camp, and on the allegation of torture by Letts.
When asked about their country’s humanitarian assistance to camps in northeast Syria, Harvey told Rudaw English that Canada “has committed over $450 million in humanitarian assistance funding in Syria since 2016. This includes support to partners delivering assistance to displaced persons in Northeast Syria, including through international NGOs and UN partners.”
“For reasons of security, Canada does not publicly disclose partner identity nor program locations,” the spokesperson added.
‘Questionable’ arguments
Canada’s failure to have repatriated any nationals appears to mark a distinct turn in the country’s foreign policy position, according to comments made by an Autonomous Administration official to HRW.
NES foreign relations co-chair Abdulkarim Omar told HRW that Canada had been the first country to approach the administration on the topic of returning its ISIS-linked nationals back home. Omar told HRW that a meeting had been held in the Kurdistan Region, where Canada has a consulate, to discuss repatriation in 2018.
NES officials have repeatedly called on the international community to repatriate foreign nationals, saying it is incapable of managing such vast numbers. It has also called on international assistance in the trial and detention of ISIS suspects.
The administration said in February 2020 that it would begin trial proceedings for foreign ISIS detainees, but indefinitely suspended the plan two months later.
Past interactions between Canada and the NES, as well as Canada’s role in the international anti-ISIS coalition, cast doubt on communication difficulties between the two parties, the report said.
“The argument that the conflict has impeded Canada’s ability to provide consular services is particularly questionable in light of Canada’s past and current communication with the Autonomous Administration, the contacts between Autonomous Administration representatives and other Western governments including allies of Canada, and the close military alliance between the SDF and the Global Coalition Against ISIS, of which Canada is a member.”
Additional reporting by Karwan Faidhi Dri
