Syria's Roj camp to be closed soon, report says

Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will fully close Al-Roj camp, which houses families of detainees accused of being members of Islamic State group (IS) fighters, in the near future, a northeast Syria official said on Saturday.

Sheikhmous Ahmed, who supervises refugee and displacement camps in northeastern Syria, told Iraqi Kurdistan news outlet Rudaw that a joint decision has been made with the SDF to empty the camp.

“For this purpose, coordination has taken place with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees regarding their transfer,” Ahmed said, adding that Syrian families will be returned to their original areas at the request of the Hasakah governor and their relatives.

The camp currently holds 756 families, 730 from around 42 countries around the world. 

The statement comes as a Syrian government official said on Sunday that "no exact date has been established for the transfer of the camp's administration to the Syrian authorities," without mentioning the closure of al-Roj.

In January, the Syrian government forces recaptured large areas of northeastern Syria from the Kurdish-led SDF after weeks of fighting. A ceasefire agreement reached on 30 January included provisions for the handover of detention camps and prisons to Syrian authorities.

The Kurdish-led forces played a major role in the territorial defeat of IS in Syria in 2019, later managed thousands of IS detainees.

Women in al-Roj camp told Middle East Eye in early February that women and children in al-Roj camp had suffered mistreatment, including beatings, during nightly raids by SDF forces amid the chaotic handover process.

Syrian authorities say Al-Hol camp emptied

The Syrian authorities on Sunday announced closing the al-Hol camp, where 6,200 foreign nationals resided, following the transfer of responsibility from Kurdish-led forces to the Syrian government.

“All Syrian and non-Syrian families were relocated,” Fadi al-Qassem, the official appointed by the government to manage al-Hol’s affairs, told AFP.

The IS suspects, along with their wives and children, have spent years in legal limbo in SDF-held camps and prisons in northeastern Syria. They were held without due process, trials or formal charges.

Human rights groups have urged countries to repatriate their citizens and prosecute suspects at home, but many governments have refused to do so.

Amid ceasefire negotiations between the Syrian government and SDF forces in January, the US transferred 5,700 detainees accused of having IS links to detention facilities in Iraq after announcing that the security partnership between the US and the SDF has "largely expired".

Iraq calls for countries to repatriate their citizens, says it will prosecute and try the all IS prisoners in its courts without exception, regardless of nationality or role within the group.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned that In light of Iraq’s well-documented due process violations in counterterrorism proceedings, the detainees held for alleged IS affiliation are at risk of enforced disappearance, unfair trials, torture, ill-treatment, and violations of the right to life.

“Regardless of their affiliation or alleged actions, these detainees have been held for years without due process, and they are now held in another country without proper safeguards,” said Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at HRW. “Victims of ISIS crimes deserve genuine justice, and that requires fair trials for the accused," she said.