Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members of Parliament, for inviting me to appear before the subcommittee.
I will focus my remarks today on the humanitarian crisis in northeastern Syria, given the gravity of the human rights abuses on the ground and the urgent need for this government to address the plight of Canadians trapped there.
As you know, 10 years of conflict have decimated Syria's infrastructure and social services, resulting in massive humanitarian needs and making millions reliant on aid, including many of the roughly two million people living in northeastern Syria in areas under the control of the Kurdish-led autonomous administration, the region's de facto government.
While much of the population doesn't have sufficient access to services—including health care, water, sanitation and shelter—the UN Security Council has unfortunately failed to maintain critical cross-border aid systems for northeastern Syria, making a desperate situation worse. Lest we think that this is a problem thousands of miles away that doesn't acutely affect Canadians, it's important for the subcommittee to recognize that dozens of Canadians, mostly children, remain detained in these life-threatening conditions amid growing insecurity, shortages of vital aid and a deadly global pandemic. These Canadians were detained by the Kurdish-led authorities two years ago after the fall of the Islamic State's so-called caliphate. The detainees include roughly 45 Canadians: eight men, 13 women and 24 children, most of whom are under the age of six.
The indefinite detention of these Canadians without their being brought before a judge to review the legality and necessity of their detention is both arbitrary and unlawful. The detention of Canadian women and children solely because of their ties to male ISIS suspects amounts to guilt by association and collective punishment, which is prohibited under international law.
The conditions in the northeastern Syrian camps and prisons holding these Canadians are life-threatening. According to humanitarian groups, more than 700 detainees in the al-Hawl and al-Roj camps—at least half of them children—have died in the past two years. The illness, filth and overcrowding in these prisons and camps have created a prime environment for the spread of COVID-19, which is increasing the despair of detainees and their families.
To be clear, these Canadians have no hope of leaving the detention camps and prisons of northeastern Syria without this government's intervention. Canada holds the keys to their release, but thus far, this government has consistently turned a blind eye, recycling the same excuses again and again to justify an unwillingness to spend political capital to repatriate Canadians with suspected ISIS ties. There is no repatriation plan for this specific group of Canadians. Consular officials have had little to no direct contact with detainees, much less lifted a finger to improve the conditions of their detention, nor has Canada helped verify citizenship for any of the detained children born in Syria to Canadian parents, leaving them effectively stateless.
Despite the Kurdish authorities' pleading with states to repatriate their nationals, Canada has only brought home two Canadian children, a five-year-old orphan and another young child in March, whose Canadian mother remains detained. While Canada may have obtained the mother's consent to repatriate her child alone, Human Rights Watch questions whether consent can be informed and voluntary for women indefinitely detained with no access to redress or counsel.
For over two years, Canada has flouted its international legal obligations to intervene when citizens abroad face serious abuses, including risks to life, torture, and inhuman and degrading treatment. The growing humanitarian crisis and these Canadians' indefinite detention in appalling conditions make piecemeal returns untenable. All of these Canadians have the right to adequate food, water, clothing, shelter, mental and physical health, and fair trials. The children have the right to an education.
Repatriation also makes sense from a security standpoint. Orderly returns allow Canada to conduct individual assessments of each returnee, monitor them as appropriate and prosecute those who may have committed crimes, a critical step in redress for thousands of ISIS victims.
In closing, I appeal to members of the subcommittee to urge this government to repatriate, as a matter of urgency, all Canadians detained in northeastern Syria. Adult guardians should be brought home with their children, absent compelling evidence that separation is in the best interest of the child.
Pending repatriations, Canada should immediately increase consular assistance to—