A UN-backed human rights advocate says hundreds of boys—some as young as 11—held in detention camps run by US-backed, Kurdish-led forces in northeastern Syria have been wrongly separated from their mothers on the “unproven” belief that they pose a security risk.
Fionnuala Ni Aolain, an independent UN rapporteur on the protection of rights while countering terrorism, aired concerns Friday about lingering “mass arbitrary detention” in the infamous al-Hol camp and others like it that she saw during her trip to the region this week—billed as the first visit of its kind by an independent human rights expert.
For years, human rights advocates have been calling on foreign countries—in Europe, North Africa, and beyond—to repatriate their nationals from the camps housing family members of Islamic State group militants, especially children who were not involved in the atrocities carried out by the extremist group.
The Kurdish officials fear that kids who grow up in the camp could give rise to a new generation of violent extremists.
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