Night raids and extortion grip Syria’s Roj camp as control shifts to government

More than 2,300 women and children confined in Syria’s Roj camp allege a surge in night raids, gunfire, stone-throwing and extortion since the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces transferred authority to the Syrian state. The detainees, many said to have family links to ISIL, describe guards beating them and a boy sustaining a serious head injury, with complaints yielding only promises. The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry called the camp the largest site of arbitrary detention of women and children on security grounds, noting worsening conditions over the past year.

After the SDF dissolved and merged with the national army, its former commander Mazloum Abdi became a presidential adviser, but security personnel inside the camp remain divided between those accepting integration and holdouts, creating tension. UN special rapporteur Fionnuala Ni Aolain, who visited in 2023, said the treatment meets the threshold for torture and urged immediate release. NGOs such as Repatriate the Children warn that boys as young as 12 are taken to rehabilitation centres, some ending up in Iraq, while many families remain trapped without legal recourse.