Syria
Ghweran prison in Syria’s northeastern city of Hasaka (left), on January 25, 2022. Photo: AFP. Human Rights Watch logo (right). Graphic: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The New York-based rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday voiced major concern about the fate of recaptured Islamic State (ISIS) detainees following the Hasaka prison siege around two weeks ago.
Five days since the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced complete control over the al-Sina'a prison in Hasaka, northeast Syria (Rojava), HRW expressed concern over a lack of transparency from the Kurdish-led force over the fate of the detainees and their whereabouts in the aftermath of the assault, and has called on the force to permit international humanitarian groups to visit the detainees and provide them with care.
"The Syrian Democratic Forces began evacuating men and boys from the besieged prison days ago, yet the world still has no idea how many are alive or dead," Letta Tayler, Associate Director of the Crisis and Conflict Division at HRW said in a statement published on Friday.
Tayler added that, "the detaining authorities in northeast Syria should end their silence on the fate of these detainees, including hundreds of children who were victims of ISIS."
Sources have told HRW that the detainees are being held in a new, more secure, UK-funded prison facility near al-Sina'a.
Siyamend Ali, head of media for the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), a core component of the SDF, told HRW that "everyone is in safe places," and "they received good care."
The SDF accused ISIS of using the detained boys as human shields, adding that measures were taken to ensure their safety as the Kurdish force advanced deeper into the facility.
ISIS attempted to break thousands of its affiliates and members out of al-Sina'a prison, known to locals as Ghweran prison. The SDF arrested 26 people who were "active in smuggling and transferring detainees out of Ghweran prison," it said in a tweet on Sunday.
On Monday, the SDF raised the death toll from the brazen prison break attempt to 495 people, with 121 SDF fighters, prison guards, and civilians, as well as 374 ISIS members.
According to the rights organization, the now-defunct prison facility in Hasaka housed around 4,000 male ISIS suspects, including 700 boys, most from Syria and Iraq and the rest from dozens of other countries.
SDF officials have placed the figure at around 5,000 prisoners.
The Kurdish force last week called on the international community to accelerate repatriation efforts of their ISIS-affiliated nationals.
On Thursday, the Netherlands repatriated five Dutch women and eleven children from Roj camp, which holds thousands of suspected ISIS-affiliated members and their families. Tayler welcomed the news, commenting that, “16 more Dutch home; many more to go. As Netherlands demonstrates, adults can be prosecuted upon return."
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