57 nations hit for failure to repatriate women, children from Syrian camps
UN human rights experts are pressing Great Britain, France, Iran, Russia, Turkey, the United States and 51 other countries to repatriate nearly 10,000 of their citizens associated with the Islamic State.
Human rights experts for the United Nations have called out more than 50 countries for failing to repatriate thousands of women and children associated with the Islamic State who are stranded in camps in northeast Syria.
The list of 57 countries includes Great Britain, China, France, Iran, Lebanon, Russia, Turkey and the United States. Referred to as a “list of shame” by one UN special rapporteur, the states have failed to bring home people living in camps that are facing deteriorating security and humanitarian situations. Treatment that borders on torture or being degrading is said to be rampant at the camps, a UN report found.
"The number of countries concerned and the disastrous humanitarian conditions in the camps highlight the need for collective, sustained and immediate action to prevent irreparable damage to people in vulnerable situations who are being held there," human rights experts at the UN said in a statement.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Syria estimates that about 10,000 foreigners still live in camps such as al-Hol in northeast Syria, which houses over 64,000 people.
