Red Cross urges States to take back fighters, families in northern Syria

Record ID: 1436006

  • Title: Red Cross urges States to take back fighters, families in northern Syria
  • Date: 9th October 2019
  • Summary: AL HOL CAMP, NORTH EAST SYRIA (FILE - MARCH 8, 2019) (REUTERS) REFUGEE TENTS SEEN INSIDE AL HOL CAMP VARIOUS OF CHILDREN STANDING BEHIND FENCE
  • Embargoed: 23rd October 2019 15:38
  • Keywords: Syria Turkey Islamic State ICRC military refugees
  • Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND/ AKCAKALE, TURKEY/ AL HOL CAMP, NORTH EAST SYRIA
  • City: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND/ AKCAKALE, TURKEY/ AL HOL CAMP, NORTH EAST SYRIA
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
  • Reuters ID: LVA002B0DMTL3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Countries must reclaim their citizens held in camps in northeast Syria, a senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Reuters on Wednesday (October 9), as Turkish forces launched an incursion.
    An estimated 100,000 people - defeated fighters of Islamic State and their families - are held in and around camps in the region, including 68,000 in al-Hol camp, Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC regional director for the Near and Middle East, said.
    They are captured Islamic State fighters - Syrian, Iraqi, and foreigners from dozens of other countries - as well as their wives and children, under the custody of Syrian Kurdish forces since U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) took the jihadist group's last enclave. Two-thirds are children.
    "Their parents were either killed or wounded and they are today in a place which is really not made for kids. So you can imagine the trauma those kids have suffered, are still suffering," Carboni said a day ahead of World Mental Health Day.
    Few countries have seemed willing to take back their citizens, who may be hard to prosecute, and the issue has led to fierce debate in their home countries where there is little public sympathy for the families of jihadists.
    The Kurdish-led SDF said Turkish warplanes struck Syria's northeast, sparking "huge panic among people" on Wednesday. World powers fear an incursion could open a new chapter in Syria's war and worsen regional turmoil.
    (Production: Cecile Mantovani)
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