HRW Warns against ‘Guantanamo on the Euphrates’

Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces hold a meeting inside a house that has become their camp in Raqqa, Syria October 1, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro
Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces hold a meeting inside a house that has become their camp in Raqqa, Syria October 1, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro
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HRW Warns against ‘Guantanamo on the Euphrates’

Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces hold a meeting inside a house that has become their camp in Raqqa, Syria October 1, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro
Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces hold a meeting inside a house that has become their camp in Raqqa, Syria October 1, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

Any transfers of suspected foreign militants and their relatives out of Syria should be transparent, Human Rights Watch told Agence France Presse, as camps in the northeast fill with families of different nationalities.

With the crumbling of ISIS, France is now considering bringing dozens of accused French militants, as well as their wives and children, back home from the detention centers and camps run by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

"We would definitely like to be present (during the transfer), or at least there should be some transparency," Nadim Houry, HRW's director of counter-terrorism, told AFP in the northern Syrian town of Amuda late Wednesday.

"As we speak, there may already be transfers happening. There's been a total lack of transparency, and bad things happen in the dark," he warned.

Tens of thousands of foreigners are estimated to have joined ISIS since 2014, but they have streamed out of its collapsing territory in recent years.

The SDF, who are bearing down on the shrinking pocket of ISIS territory in east Syria, told AFP they were detaining foreign fighters on a "daily basis."

The SDF are also holding hundreds of women and children who were born to alleged ISIS militants, including French nationals, in two main prison camps in the north.

Authorities at one of the camps, Al-Hol, say they have received more than 1,000 foreign nationals since fighting against ISIS's last positions ramped up in mid-December.

On Wednesday, dozens of foreign women and their young children, who had recently arrived from the battered ISIS pocket further south, could be seen waiting in a reception area in Al-Hol.

The women wore black veils covering everything but their blue eyes and called out to their pale, thin children in English and French.

They were waiting to be assigned tents in the cordoned-off section of the camp where foreigners are held, and were not allowed to speak to reporters.

French sources have told AFP that an estimated 50 adults and 80 children could be brought back to France, but authorities have not confirmed any planned transfer.

"While this debate is taking place in France, it's not clear it has manifested itself in any concrete measures on the ground," said Houry, whose team plans to visit foreigners in the camps. 

HRW is seeking clarity on the numbers that might return, what route they would be transferred through, and whether children would be separated from their parents.

France has a responsibility not to leave its citizens, including children under seven years old, in legal limbo in a "Guantanamo on the Euphrates," Houry said.

"We are confident that once they actually hit France, there is a mechanism in place," he said. 

"What we're concerned about is what is going to happen between now and then. We're in a grey zone."



France Cools Expectations of Swift Palestinian State Recognition

 France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot delivers a speech during the inauguration of the Choiseul Library as the first site labeled "Heritage of Diplomacy" ("Patrimoine de la Diplomacie") in Versailles, near Paris on June 5, 2025. (AFP)
France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot delivers a speech during the inauguration of the Choiseul Library as the first site labeled "Heritage of Diplomacy" ("Patrimoine de la Diplomacie") in Versailles, near Paris on June 5, 2025. (AFP)
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France Cools Expectations of Swift Palestinian State Recognition

 France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot delivers a speech during the inauguration of the Choiseul Library as the first site labeled "Heritage of Diplomacy" ("Patrimoine de la Diplomacie") in Versailles, near Paris on June 5, 2025. (AFP)
France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot delivers a speech during the inauguration of the Choiseul Library as the first site labeled "Heritage of Diplomacy" ("Patrimoine de la Diplomacie") in Versailles, near Paris on June 5, 2025. (AFP)

France on Friday dampened expectations Paris could rapidly recognize a Palestinian state, with the French foreign minister saying while it was "determined" to make such a move, recognition had to be more than "symbolic".

France is due later this month to co-host with Saudi Arabia a UN conference in New York on a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

There had been expectations that France could recognize a Palestinian state during that conference, with President Emmanuel Macron also growing increasingly frustrated with Israel's blocking of aid to the Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

"France could have taken a symbolic decision. But this is not the choice we made because we have a particular responsibility" as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, while saying Paris was still "determined" to make the move.

Several EU countries including Ireland, Spain and Sweden recognize a Palestinian state. But Germany, while backing a two-state solution, has said recognition now would send the "wrong signal".

France is reportedly working closely on the issue with the United Kingdom, which also so far has not recognized a Palestinian state, at a time when French-British diplomatic ties are becoming increasingly tight after Brexit.

Macron on Thursday said that he expected the conference in New York would take steps "towards recognizing Palestine", without being more specific.

He has said he hopes French recognition of a Palestinian state would encourage other governments to do the same and that countries who do not recognize Israel should do so.

Barrot meanwhile also stressed the "absolute necessity" to address the issue of the disarmament of Palestinian group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants abducted 251 hostages, 55 of whom remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive in Hamas-run Gaza has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry there, figures the United Nations deems reliable.

Relations between Israel and France have deteriorated over the last weeks, with Israel's foreign ministry accusing Macron of undertaking a "crusade against the Jewish state" after he called on European countries to harden their stance if the humanitarian situation in Gaza did not improve.