The British newspaper, The Telegraph, revealed in a report on the British government’s funding of prisons run by the terrorist PKK/PYD organization in northeastern Syria, where children, some of whom have not reached the age of nine, are being held without trial in inhuman conditions, where they are deprived of sunlight.
The Telegraph newspaper published a report by its reporter, Campbell McDermid, in which he reviewed the prison conditions under the control of the terrorist PKK/PYD organization, in northeastern Syria, which are funded by the British government.
The writer said: “The children grew up for three years without sunlight in very hot cells in the summer, and the cold gnaws at the bones in the winter,” adding that some of them suffer from serious wounds that cannot be treated in prison, while others suffer from tuberculosis that spreads in the cells. in which there is no ventilation. They do not receive adequate education, family visits, and fresh fruits or vegetables.
About 750 children suffer from difficult humanitarian conditions
An estimated 750 children, some nine years old, including at least Westerners and Britons, are languishing without hope in a British-funded prison system in northern Syria built for people believed to have ties to the Islamic State. None of them have been charged with a crime, in addition to being tried.
The reports that revealed the detention and death of an Australian child last month, and the absence of information or evidence about his fate, were an incident that opened eyes to the way in which the prison system in the areas run by the terrorist PKK/PYD organization in northeastern Syria has become a “black point” that swallows dozens of children. It is believed that a number of them have been killed, seriously wounded or have disappeared without a trace since the bloody attack carried out by ISIS terrorist fighters last January.
“There are at least 100 children,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, Fionella ni Iollatgen. Either the children were killed during the attack or they were taken to undisclosed locations, and according to international law we call this enforced absence.”
She added: “I think there are a number of children who are suffering from injuries that endanger their lives, and they are still in that prison. And I think some of the kids are from Western countries.”
The terrorist organization PKK/PYD keeps children secret
The newspaper says that the terrorist organization PKK/PYD, which supervises the prisons, did not disclose any information related to the children. The terrorist organization has also rejected requests from non-governmental organizations to evacuate wounded and sick children.
The newspaper pointed out that Bo Victor Nieland, the representative of UNICEF in Syria, visited and toured the prison in February, and told the New York Times that the child detainees were suffering from a lack of food and medicine.
“The silence on the number raises questions about why a number of countries have allowed fighters from other countries to run tens of thousands of foreigners suspected of ties to ISIS alongside their families,” said Letta Taylor, associate director of counterterrorism at Human Rights Watch. them to court in addition to charging them with crimes.”
After the end of the battle with ISIS in 2019, the terrorist PKK\PYD organization became responsible for 10,000 detainees linked to ISIS, and the terrorist PKK\PYD placed these detainees in a number of detention centers in northeastern Syria, most of which were hospitals and schools that were converted to detention centers. 750 children under the age of eighteen were arrested.
The number of children in prison is estimated at 750, some of whom are nine years old, and some of them suffer injuries that endanger their lives. These children are described as “cubs of the caliphate,” a nickname ISIS used to describe child soldiers. However, some of them did not carry a weapon, and some were separated from their mothers when they were young for fear of their influence on the camps in which the women were imprisoned. Most of the detained children were Syrians and Iraqis, along with 150 children from other regions, one of whom was British, according to UN experts.
Like adults, these children face an unknown legal situation. The terrorist organization PKK\PYD does not have legal jurisdiction to try foreign detainees, and several countries have ignored calls from the United States and local authorities, to rehabilitate their children. Britain says that citizens who have traveled to ISIS areas pose a threat to security. The government stripped a number of them of their nationalities, even though it expressed a willingness to bring in children who have no father or mother. Instead of rehabilitating prisoners from Britain, it has invested heavily in strengthening the prison system in northeastern Syria.
British multi-million dollar financing
The British government did not reveal the amount it spent, nor the oversight it requested, but US General Paul Cavert, the commander of the anti-ISIS forces, spoke last year about British funding of $20 million to expand prison institutions. The government said it had increased funding.
In January, ISIS fighters launched an attack to infiltrate and free detainees from the main detention center for children in a prison in the Gweran neighborhood of Hasaka, a town on the Khabur River 40 miles from the Turkish border.
After ten days of bloody fighting, in which ISIS fighters took control of part of the prison, its guards and prisoners, it was taken over with British support and American special forces and Apache helicopters. And the world listened to the voice of the child Youssef, who went during the siege, in a series of pleas in which he asked to save his life. Omar was 11 years old in 2015 when his relatives took him to Syria, where he survived life under ISIS, the final battle to defeat him, after which he was separated from his mother and imprisoned. But his life took another turn when he was wounded during the siege.
In a message to his family in Australia, the child said: “I was injured in my head and hands. I bled a lot, and there are no doctors here and no one to help me.” He estimated that 15 to 20 children were killed around him: "I am afraid and I want help." This was the last thing the world heard from Joseph.
On July 18, his family announced his death, and issued a statement expressing their grief and anger at the Australian government's failure to bring Youssef home. It has been two weeks since his death, suggesting an opaque and unaccountable prison system.
The British government revealed that it plans to invest more in the prison system in northeastern Syria, despite the warning of United Nations experts, that funding the prison system, where thousands are detained arbitrarily and for an unlimited period without trial, violates international law.
Australian dies in Syria
An Australian government spokesman said: "The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is trying to confirm the death of an Australian in Syria." United Nations experts have warned the British government that its funding of the prison system, where thousands are detained arbitrarily and for an unlimited period of time without trial, is likely to violate international law. In a letter dated January 1, they warned that providing support "in the expansion and maintenance of a substantially arbitrary prison system is simply incompatible" with the British government's obligations under international law relating to civil and political rights.
The government responded in April to the letter, denying that prison funding was a legal liability, adding: “We are particularly concerned about the conditions in which minors live, including reports of the wounded and dead from the attack on Ghweran, the lack of health care, the spread of tuberculosis and poor nutrition. “. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office rejected a request from the newspaper to provide information about Britain's support for prisons in north-east Syria under the Freedom of Information Act.
It justified the refusal as an exception related to the protection of national security. However, the government revealed in its letter to experts from the United Nations, that it plans to invest more in the prison system in northeastern Syria, adding, “We plan to increase the volume of humanitarian support for minors in prisons in 2022.”
No one knows how much the government has spent or the oversight it has done "would not be appropriate to suspend for reasons of national security."
Taylor, of Human Rights Watch, said the British government's role in prisons called for scrutiny: "Britain's funding of female detainees who are imprisoned for unlimited periods in life-threatening conditions and without legal process raises serious legal questions." The permanent solution, she said, is to bring them back: "Youssef was one of the children who faced or will face the same fate."