The death of an Australian teenager “wrongfully detained” in a Kurdish prison in Syria, has once again shed light on the deplorable conditions of detention of tens of thousands of children and wives of jihadists, including many foreigners who have come to fight in Syria, whom their States are reluctant to repatriate.
After the territorial defeat of the Islamic State (IS) group in March 2019 and the collapse of its “caliphate”, thousands of relatives of fighters were evacuated from the last jihadist square and then detained by Kurdish forces in the northeast. of Syria.
Born in Sydney and brought to Syria at the age of 11 by older members of his family, Youssef Zahab “was only 14 when he was separated from his mother and imprisoned in a men’s prison with hundreds of other Syrian and foreign boys,” indicates the pan-Arab site Al-Jazeera.
He was reportedly injured in violent clashes last January between jihadists and Kurdish militias around Ghwayran prison in the city of Hassaké, which killed more than 200 people and during which the Islamists used minor detainees as human shields.
Unknown element
“I am very scared, I need help”
According Al-Jazeera, the young boy had sent the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) a series of audio recordings asking for help and decrying the lack of medical care, food and water.
One of the recordings was released by HRW:
“I injured my head and my hand […]. I’ve lost a lot of blood […]. There are no doctors here, there is no one who can help me. I am very afraid. I need help. Please […]. My friends were killed in front of me, a 14 year old, a 15 year old […]. There are a lot of dead bodies and wounded.”
The episode of the miner’s death brings up the subject of detention conditions in prisons in northeastern Syria, where thousands of prisoners are held in appalling conditions, including 12,000 foreigners, most of them without trial.
The Kurds constantly demand their repatriation by the authorities, but the States, especially European ones, are reluctant to do so.
In early July, France repatriated around 50 people, including 35 minors and 16 mothers, but the last repatriation operation dated back to January 2021.