On Thursday, a UN watchdog said that France had violated human rights, allowing French children to remain for years in inhuman and life-threatening conditions in Syrian camps for family members of suspected jihadists.
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"France has the responsibility and power to protect the French children in the Syrian camps against an imminent risk to their lives by taking action to repatriate them," issued the UN child rights committee.
Through a statement, the organization stated that "the prolonged detention of the child victims in life-threatening conditions also amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment."
After analyzing the findings of the monitoring the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the committee, composed of 18 independent experts, noted three cases involving 49 French children held in Kurdish-controlled camps in Syria's northeast.
In Syria, relatives of suspected jihadists are kept in several camps, including children. The camp in Syria's northeast is the largest of Al-Hol with around 56 000 people displaced and refugees. Western countries have made repeated calls so all nationals displaced could be repatriated.
"The children are living in inhuman sanitary conditions, lacking necessities including water, food, and health care, and facing an imminent risk of death," warned Ann Skelton, committee member."The situation is therefore extremely urgent."
Skelton highlighted that since the start of 2021 at least 2 children have reportedly died in the camps because of the bad conditions.