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30,000 Children and Women Held in Abusive Camps in Northern Syria

HeadlineMar 19, 2024

In Syria, some 30,000 children and women who had ties to Islamic State militants are still being detained in camps and prisons across the north under severely abusive conditions. That’s according to a U.N.-backed commission, which says most of the children were brought to the camps a decade ago when the Islamic State controlled portions of land in the region. It’s been five years since the militant group lost its presence in Syria, but the children have yet to be repatriated to their home countries, remaining in indefinite captivity. Tens of thousands of people — many of them children under the age of 12 and women who were married to Islamic State militants — are being held at al-Hol Camp, which has been described by the U.N. as a “blight on the conscience of humanity.” Dozens of babies are reportedly born each month at al-Hol, which is located in a region of northwestern Syria still patrolled by hundreds of U.S. troops. Meanwhile, teenage boys are kept in jails that are run by the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

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