UN experts: Finland violated rights of children in Syria camps

UN experts: Finland violated rights of children in Syria camps
October 12, 2022, 5:30 pm

Syrian refugees sit together in a tent at the Lebanese border town of Arsal. (File photo: Reuters)

A UN watchdog said Wednesday (Oct 12), Finland violated the rights of Finnish children left to languish for years in life-threatening conditions in Syrian camps.

The UN child rights committee said in a statement: "Finland has the responsibility and power to protect the Finnish children in the Syrian camps against an imminent risk to their lives by taking action to repatriate them."

In the findings, which echoed a previous ruling concerning France's responsibility towards French children stuck in the camps, the committee said "prolonged detention of child victims in life-threatening conditions amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment."

The committee, whose 18 independent experts are tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, issued the findings after considering a case filed on behalf of six Finnish children currently held at the Al-Hol camp in Syria's northeast.

Since their relatives brought the case to the committee in 2019, three of the children have been able to leave the camp on their own initiative with their mother, and eventually arrived back in Finland.

A UN watchdog said Wednesday (Oct 12), Finland violated the rights of Finnish children left to languish for years in life-threatening conditions in Syrian camps - Photo. Facebook page

The committee said: "The remaining three child victims, currently between five and six years old, are still detained in closed camps in a war-like zone."

The petition from their relatives also mentioned 33 other Finnish children held at the camp without access to legal assistance.

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Repeated calls for Western countries to repatriate their nationals have largely fallen on deaf ears.

Committee member Ann Skelton warned: "The situation of children in the camps has been widely reported as inhuman, lacking basic necessities including water, food and health care, and facing an imminent risk of death."

Two children die every week on average in Al-Hol due to the dismal conditions, the Save the Children campaign group warned in a report last year, while the UN has reported more than 100 murders at the camp in just 18 months.

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The committee, whose opinions and recommendations are non-binding, said that Finland had not given due consideration to children's best interests when assessing their relatives' requests for repatriation.

Skelton said: "We call on Finland to take immediate and decisive action to preserve the lives of these children, and to bring them home to their families."

Source: anews

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