RSI launches tool tracking global repatriations of children and adults from northeast Syria

13th July 2022

Today, RSI launched its Global Repatriations Tracker, an important new tool that charts the estimated number of children, women and men repatriated from northeast Syria by country and date since 2019.

Since the territorial defeat of the Islamic State (IS), tens of thousands of children, women and men from across the world who were allegedly found in former IS-controlled areas have been held in dire conditions in camps, prisons, and other detention facilities in northeast Syria. To read RSI’s report on the fundamental human rights violations suffered by children and women who are currently being involuntarily held in al Hol and Roj camps in northeast Syria, please click here.

The Tracker aims to increase transparency surrounding global repatriation efforts and assist those working in the field or reporting on these issues. The numbers are drawn from publicly available media sources.

Notable trends in the data as of July 2022:

• The UK is lagging behind other European States in repatriating only a small percentage of children and no women. Most other European countries have repatriated many children and women, with a notable increase in these efforts in the past 12 months.
• Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Morocco, and Trinidad and Tobago have also repatriated very few people.
• The US, Sweden, and Kazakhstan have repatriated most, if not all, children and women from northeast Syria.
• The US, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and North Macedonia are the only countries that appear to have repatriated men.
• A number of the 57 countries which UN experts have confirmed have nationals in al Hol and Roj camps – including Spain and Portugal – appear not to have repatriated anyone.