Several Australian boys being held in Syrian detention camps have been told they could be forcibly removed from their families because they have turned 12 years old.
UN human rights experts said at least 10 boys, as young as 12, were forcibly removed from Roj camp overnight on 31 January, and that more removals were planned.
“The pattern of forcibly removing boys who reach the ages of 10 or 12 from the camps, separating them from their mothers and siblings and taking them to unknown locations is completely unlawful,” the expert panel said in a statement.
The Guardian understands no Australian children were removed in the latest forced removal, but several families have been told their boys face imminent removal.
“The indefinite, cradle-to-grave, camp-to-prison detention of boys, based on crimes allegedly committed by their family members, is a shocking example of the legal black hole that North-east Syria currently epitomises,” the UN experts, led by special rapporteur Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, said.
“We are extremely concerned that serious harm may befall these boys and fear they may be forcibly disappeared, and subject to sale, exploitation and abuse, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.”
The UN group said most of the boys in Roj camp have been detained since they were seven years old and were “victims of terrorism”, deserving of the protection of international human rights law.
Camp Roj, in north-east Syria, currently holds about 3000 people – the widows, sons and daughters of slain or jailed Islamic State combatants.
Boys are removed from Roj ostensibly for security concerns around their potential radicalisation. They are typically taken to prisons – where they are jailed alongside adults – or other detention facilities, including so-called rehabilitation centres.
In the first half of 2022, Australian teenager Yusuf Zahab reportedly died from unknown causes. He had been taken into Syria at the age of 11 and was separated as a teenager from his family.
His death was not reported until July 2022 (when he would have been 18): the last time he was heard from was in January when he sent desperate pleas for help during an IS siege of Al-Sina’a prison where he was being held.
The Guardian has approached the office of the home affairs minister regarding the forcible removal of boys from Roj camp and the potential risk to Australian nationals.
About 60 Australians – 20 women and 40 children – had been held in detention camps across north-east Syria, most in Roj camp. Many of the women say they were coerced, tricked or forced into travelling to Syria by husbands who have since died.
In October 2022, the government repatriated four women and 13 children from Roj to Australia. One of those women, Mariam Raad, has since been charged with entering, or remaining in, a “declared area” – in this case Syria’s al-Raqqa province, which was under the control of Islamic state – in breach of federal law.
It was the second repatriation mission undertaken by Australian authorities: in 2019, eight orphaned children from one family were returned to Australia.
Other Australian families – with relatives still held in Roj and other camps – are growing increasingly anxious about the delay in launching further government repatriation missions. Sources say those are still planned but that subsequent operations will be “more complex”.
Save the Children Australia chief executive, Mat Tinkler, said the Australian government had shown, through recent repatriations, that bringing children and families home to Australia was possible.
“Failing to act now would be unconscionable … there is no excuse not to bring home these vulnerable children without delay.
“They are all Australian citizens who deserve full access to the education, healthcare and support systems available here, that will allow them to reintegrate and recover.”
Tinkler said if the boys were removed from their families to detention centres, “they are left vulnerable by the lack of communication with their mothers, without any clear pathway for release”.
