Missing Canadian women and girls called family from Syrian camp: Edmonton lawyer | 24CA News
A lawyer for 2 Canadian girls and three teen women who have been to be repatriated from northeastern Syria earlier this month says they have been mistreated by guards and are being detained in a camp primarily holding relations of people with alleged hyperlinks to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Edmonton lawyer Zachary Al-Khatib stated one of many girls was capable of make a short telephone name to a member of the family in Canada early Tuesday earlier than the decision was reduce off.
He stated the girl indicated they have been alive and had been moved to the Roj camp however had been mistreated, wanted medical consideration and had all their possessions taken.
“It was very concerning for the family obviously to hear this after 11 days of nothing,” he stated.
Under an settlement with Global Affairs Canada, the group of 5 was to be transported from the Al-Hol camp, the place that they had been detained, to the Roj camp to affix 4 different girls and 10 kids. The others returned to Canada on April 6.
FILE – Children collect outdoors their tents, at al-Hol camp, which homes households of members of the Islamic State group, in Hasakeh province, Syria, May 1, 2021.
AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File
Al-Khatib stated whereas these nonetheless in Syria have been involved about their security with the switch between camps, the Canadian authorities instructed them that they had communicated with Kurdish forces operating the Al-Hol camp.
“They were given assurances that they would be safe,” he stated. “Then when they presented themselves to be transported, they went missing for 11 days and the government had no answers.”
Al-Khatib stated Canada must take quick steps to make sure the ladies and women are protected and repatriated.
“The government has been silent on this,” he stated.
“The government has to provide answers to the family and to the public.”
Al-Khatib stated he doesn’t know why the ladies nonetheless on the Roj camp, ages 41 and 33, initially travelled to Syria, however he has not been proven any proof of legal intent or that they broke the regulation.
Global Affairs Canada didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Letta Tayler, affiliate director within the disaster and battle division of Human Rights Watch, agreed it’s essential that the Canadian authorities discover out what occurred and clarify it to the household and public.
“This incident involving the five who were left behind is emblematic of the problems inherent in this unlawful detention system, this process of Canada and other countries outsourcing responsibility to their nationals to a non-state actor in a war zone,” she stated.
“Things are not necessarily going to go smoothly in these circumstances.”
Tayler stated many different girls have alleged that they have been detained inside Al-Hol or at different websites, and in some instances have been abused whereas being transferred from Al-Hol to the Roj camp.
She stated some girls have claimed they have been taken to a holding cell they known as the “Red Prison,” which she stated appears like a detention space in Al-Hol.
“Some of the testimonies I’ve heard are that women and children are held in rooms that are basically latrines,” she stated.
“These are horrific conditions.”
Human Rights Watch stated in December that since ISIS’s territorial defeat in 2019, greater than 42,400 foreigners accused of hyperlinks to ISIS have been held in camps and prisons in northeastern Syria, most of them kids, who haven’t been introduced earlier than a judicial authority to find out the necessity or legality of their detention. In 2020, it stated that included no less than 47 Canadians.
The worldwide non-governmental group stated medical care, clear water, shelter and training within the camps are “grossly inadequate” and known as on international locations with detainees to repatriate their residents.
Ottawa-based lawyer Lawrence Greenspon reached the settlement in January to repatriate 19 Canadian girls and kids who had been a part of a lawsuit towards the federal authorities referred to as BOLOH, or “Bring Our Loved Ones Home.” The federal authorities is interesting a courtroom order to repatriate 4 males being detained in Syria.
Three of the 4 girls who returned to Canada this month have been arrested upon arrival underneath a Terrorism Peace Bond Application and have since been launched on bail.
Two different girls who have been repatriated from Syria with two kids in October have been additionally arrested upon arrival, one in all whom is dealing with legal fees.
“We have both the laws and the personnel and there’s a whole department, the Department of Justice, that’s set up to deal with these kinds of prosecutions,” Greenspon stated.
“There’s absolutely no reason not to bring these Canadians home and deal with them appropriately under the Canadian criminal justice system as opposed to letting them rot in the prisons and detention camps.”
© 2023 The Canadian Press
