HRW Calls For Repatriation of South Africans Held In Syria

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for the repatriation of several South Africans which include 4 women and 13 children - one just 2 years old - from Syria where they are being held in what the global rights body described as "horrific conditions".

Trapped in the war-racked nation since 2015, none of these South Africans have been charged with a crime and HRW urged the South African government to resume its aborted efforts to bring them back.

Hundreds of detainees have died in Roj and al-Hol, the two camps in northeast Syria holding thousands of foreign women and children for alleged ISIS links. One was a South African mother. Many were children who died of preventable illnesses. Others were murdered by detainees loyal to ISIS, burned in tent fires, drowned in sewage pits, or hit by water trucks.

"The South African government should repatriate or help bring home its nationals before any more die in northeast Syria. It should help rehabilitate and reintegrate the returnees, recognizing that children are victims of ISIS and that many women may be, too," HRW said.

In 2020, South African photojournalist Shiraaz Mohamed returned home from Syria after he was kidnapped in January 2017 when he was documenting the war.