December 14, 2022

(New York, December 14, 2022) – More than 42,400 foreigners accused of Islamic State (ISIS) links remain abandoned by their countries in camps and prisons in northeast Syria despite increased repatriations of women and children in recent months, Human Rights Watch said today. Kurdish-led authorities are holding the detainees, most of them children, along with 23,200 Syrians in life-threatening conditions.

Recent Turkish air and artillery strikes have compounded the danger. But even before Turkey’s attacks, at least 42 people had been killed during 2022 in al-Hol, the largest camp, some by ISIS loyalists. Hundreds of others were killed in an attempted ISIS prison break in January. Children have drowned in sewage pits, died in tent fires, and been run over by water trucks, and hundreds have died from treatable illnesses, staff, aid workers, and detainees said.

Stay up-to-date and get alerts on latest videos

Subscribe

Search

  • Video

    (Kyiv, February 21, 2023) – Russia’s cluster munition strike on the crowded Kramatorsk train station in eastern Ukraine in April 2022 killed dozens of civilians in violation of the laws of war, and w

    Death at Kramatorsk Train Station
    video content
  • Interactive

    Russian forces deployed the type of missile system used in the attack on Kramatorsk train station that killed at least 58 civilians fleeing fighting in eastern Ukraine in April 2022, an investigation by Human Rights Watch and SITU Research reveals.

    Crowd at the train station in Kramatorsk
    interactive content
  • Video

    The forced displacement of the entire Chagossian people by the United Kingdom and United States governments and the UK’s racial persecution, and continued blocking of their return home, are crimes against

    People on Boat
    video content
  • Audio

    Afghanistan remains the only country where girls are banned from attending school. Just over 500 days after the Taliban imposed the ban on girls attending secondary school, Sahar Fetrat, Nayera Kohistani, and Birgit Schwarz discuss what it means for the future of Afghanistan.

    Women and children in need of food outside a bakery in Kabul, Afghanistan, February 28, 2022.
    audio content
  • Audio

    With Italy’s support, the Libyan coastguard has intercepted over 108,000 people crossing the Mediterranean Sea. In this Twitter Space, we discuss the criminalization of rescue NGOs in the Mediterranean, with Sean Binder, ​​Nicola Canestrini, Katherine Schmidt, Eva Cossé, and Birgit Schwarz.

    Migrants swim next to their overturned wooden boat
    audio content
  • Video

    Antipersonnel landmines are indiscriminate weapons that kill and injure people long after conflicts end. 

    Antipersonnel landmines are indiscriminate weapons that kill and injure people long after conflicts end.
    video content