Switzerland should do more about repatriating nationals from Syria’s camps, Swiss activists

QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Swiss human rights activists welcomed the repatriation of two Swiss girls days ago from a camp in northeast Syria. But they say Switzerland should do more about returning nationals who remained in northeast Syria.

This comes afterSwitzerland repatriated two girls form the Roj Camp, in the far northeast Syria on December 7.

The girls, aged 9 and 15, were brought back without their mother, who was stripped of her Swiss citizenship after taking her daughters with her to Syria, to join the Islamic State Organization (ISIS), in 2016.

“Obviously I welcome this development, but I think allowing Swiss citizens to return to Switzerland really is the least they can do,” said Nils Melzer, the Swiss UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The third daughter, the youngest, remained with her mother in the camp.

Three children, out of an estimated total of 15 Swiss nationals (men, women and children), remain in camps northern Syria, according to figures from the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service.

Because Kurdish administration does not allow mothers and children to be separated unless the mother consents, the Department of Foreign Affairs worked on a strategy over many months to convince the mother to let her children leave the camp, said Johannes Matyassy, director of consular affairs. This included regular phone contact between the girls and their fathers and visits by Swiss consular officials to the Roj Camp.

Roj Camp in northeast Syria houses Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and also members of the Islamic State (ISIS) whom defeated by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the US-led Coalition Forces in 2019.  

“The Autonomous Administration urges the international community to repatriate their citizens from camps in Syria. Remaining children and women in camps designated for ISIS members in terrorist atmosphere is too danger,”  Fanar al-Ge’eit, deputy co-chair of the foreign affairs of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) said.  

“The girls’ return was good news, but it’s an insufficient step,” Marco Sassoli, an international law professor at the University of Geneva, told SWI swissinfo.ch.  

“No state wants to prosecute their own citizens in their own country, although this is clearly possible under Swiss and international law,” Sassoli said, adding “If they really don’t want to take their own citizens back, they should help the Kurdish authorities in northern Syria to improve their judicial procedures.”

In the same context, a Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesperson told SWI swissinfo.ch that European states led by Sweden discussed the possibility of an international tribunal External link to try foreign fighters. Switzerland took part in a conference on this in June 2019, but since then states have made no progress.