Locals flee amid growing fears for children trapped in ISIS prison in Syria

Alannah Travers

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Tens of thousands of people have been displaced due to the ongoing battle to retake control of a prison in Hasaka province in northeast Syria attacked by Islamic State (ISIS) four days ago, according to the United Nations (UN), as concerns mount for the hundreds of children housed within the detention facilities alongside thousands of suspected ISIS fighters; 300 of whom surrendered to Kurdish regional authorities on Monday as fighting rages and a week-long curfew in the area begins.

Forty-five thousand civilians are currently displaced due to armed conflict in the Ghweran neighbourhood in northeast Syria, a joint statement issued by UN coordinators in Syria, Imran Riza and Muhannad Hadi, claimed on Sunday, following the militants' attack on a prison housing their affiliates in Hasaka late Thursday night.

Most of those displaced “have sought safety with family and friends in nearby areas,” it read, adding that around 500 are currently hosted in two temporary shelters.

The death toll since last week’s operation has exceeded 150, including seven civilians as reported by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor which claimed on Monday that 102 ISIS fighters had been killed alongside 45 prison guards, Asayish, and counter-terrorism forces.

The US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Sunday claimed higher figures. Citing the confessions of those re-arrested to claim that “more than 200 suicide terrorists” were involved in the attack, it reported the deaths of over 175 terrorists.

The head of the SDF's media office Farhad Shami said on Monday that operations were underway as planned, and over 300 “terrorist mutineers” who took part in the prison riot have surrendered to the force.

In a separate statement on Monday, the force reported that another fighter was killed in the day’s clash, bringing their total figure of SDF members killed in the response to the attack on the prison, also known as al-Sina’a, to 28. Operations are continuing to comb Ghweran neighbourhood in the pursuit of terrorist cells.

A total ban on movement within the Hasaka province was imposed by the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria on Sunday, coming into effect on Monday. 

The SDF is responsible for around 10,000 men suspected of ISIS affiliation in prisons under its control in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava), with an estimated 800 children who were mostly rounded up in 2019 as the caliphate fell. Hasaka prison held around 5,000 men, along with several hundred younger boys, held in detention on suspicion of connection with the group.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Sunday that some of the minors in detention are “as young as 12 years old,” placing the number of children trapped inside the prison at around 850.

“Children in the Ghwayran prison are children and have the right to access restorative justice procedures," UNICEF’s Syria Representative Bo Viktor Nylund said, calling for the release of all minors from prison. "Detention of children should only be a measure of last resort and for the shortest time possible.”

UNICEF's Regional Chief of Advocacy and Communications, Juliette Touma, told Rudaw English on Monday that she couldn't begin to imagine the atrocities that the children within al-Sina’a must be witnessing; most imprisoned for nearly three years.

"Violence needs to stop for the sake of the children inside," she said, commenting on the "brutal fight and heavy violence," and stressing the need for the urgent release of the minors. UNICEF continues to call on member states to repatriate their children.

Save the Children added their voice to calls for the immediate evacuation of children from Ghweran prison, following what the charity described as “five days of intense fighting and audio footage of a boy begging for help.”

Sonia Khush, Save the Children’s Syria Response Director, called on those engaged in the present conflict to protect the children from harm, and to take steps to facilitate their safe escape. “Reports that children have been killed or injured are tragic and outrageous,” she said on Monday. “The boys must be able to receive the medical support they need for any injuries sustained in the attack.”

“Responsibility for anything that happens to these children also lies at the door of foreign governments who have thought that they can simply abandon their child nationals in Syria,” she continued, urging the international community to repatriate all foreign children. “Risk of death or injury is directly linked to these governments’ refusal to take them home.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has estimated that some of the boys trapped in the prison are aged just 11 and 12, and 300 of whom are Iraqi or of other foreign nationality. Last year, a HRW report warned that almost 43,000 foreign men, women, and children linked to ISIS were detained in inhuman or degrading conditions in northeast Syria, including 27,500 children: hundreds kept in squalid prisons alongside men.

A UN report, published in May, found that the conditions facing children held in northeast Syria amounted to torture, and breached inhuman treatment under international law.

The UK has repeatedly said that it will bring back unaccompanied British children, but will not engage with repatriating British adults suspected of involvement with the terrorist group.

“It was not easy to hold a large number of ISIS terrorists," the Autonomous Administration said on Monday. “It was a job that big and capable countries could do, but gave up and raised their hands from taking this responsibility.”

US airstrikes were launched in response to Thursday night’s attack, with the Special Operation Joint Task force in the region issuing a statement following the operation claiming to have “contained the threat” by supporting the SDF.