Roj camp detainees report worsening violence as Syria assumes responsibility

Women and children detained at Syria’s Roj camp have reported worsening violence, including night gunfire, stones thrown by guards, extortion and alleged assaults. Al Jazeera said it could not independently verify the accounts, which it reported were consistent with findings from United Nations investigators and non-government organisations.

More than 2,300 people remain held at the camp, many because of alleged family or other associations with ISIL. Children from more than 50 countries are among those detained, without individual legal processes determining the grounds or duration of their detention.

The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria told the Human Rights Council on 8 September that conditions at Roj had deteriorated over the previous year. UN experts and human rights groups have described the open-ended detention of women and children at the camp as arbitrary and unlawful.

Responsibility for Roj has recently shifted from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to the Syrian government. The SDF announced on 25 August that it would dissolve as an independent force and merge with Syria’s national army, after losing much of the territory it had controlled.

Detainees told Al Jazeera the administrative transition had not brought a clear break with the past. An open letter from 11 mothers said many of the same guards remained, while accounts described tensions within the security presence.

The status of detainees remains unresolved, including the fate of some boys reportedly removed from their mothers. Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates and the camp administration had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.