Syrian Democratic Forces troops take part in a search operation inside al-Hawl camp in north-eastern Syria.<\/p>\n
The US and UK are complicit in the detention of thousands of people, including British nationals, in camps and facilities in north-east Syria<\/a> where disease, torture and death are rife, according to Amnesty International.<\/p>\n In a report, the charity says the western-backed region\u2019s autonomous authorities are responsible for large-scale human rights violations against people held since the end of the ground war against Islamic State<\/a> (IS) more than five years ago.<\/p>\n Amnesty says the US is \u201cinvolved in most aspects of the detention system\u201d, which consists of at least 27 little-reported facilities, where suspected IS affiliates are held, and al-Hawl and Roj camps.<\/p>\n According to the report, 56,000 detainees include 30,000 children and 14,500 women, more than 20 UK nationals, as well as people stripped of their British citizenship \u2013 most notoriously Shamima Begum<\/a> (in Roj), who was 15 when she left her east London home to travel to IS territory<\/a>.<\/p>\n The UK has provided more than \u00a315m to help expand a large Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) facility called Panorama, which detains men and boys who have been denied access to adequate food and medical care, leading to illnesses and diseases, including a severe outbreak of tuberculosis, which is killing one or two people a week, says Amnesty.<\/p>\n Sacha Deshmukh, the charity\u2019s UK chief executive, said: \u201cContinued inaction from the government amounts to connivance in the unlawful detention of UK nationals amid misery, disease and possible death.<\/p>\n \u201cThe UK government has a responsibility for all its citizens, including Shamima Begum, which it can\u2019t cast off when that might suit it.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the UK should stop blocking its citizens\u2019 return<\/a> and help establish a fair process to identify who should be released and bring IS criminals to justice.<\/p>\n The report, which includes interviews with 126 current or former detainees, contains harrowing details of torture.<\/p>\n Yusuf (not his real name), one of eight men detained in an SDF detention facility on the outskirts of al-Shaddadi city who spoke to Amnesty, said: \u201cThe worst was when they came inside the room \u2026 carrying plastic pipes, cables, steel pipes, and they beat us everywhere \u2026 Every 15 days, they would take us out, in the yard, all naked \u2026 [The guards] were raping people with [a] stick \u2026 Once they took me [out of the cell] with another guy \u2026 They brought an electricity cable from the generator, and they kept torturing us by electricity \u2026 I think the guy next to me died. He stopped moving and screaming.\u201d<\/p>\n Another detainee said when US soldiers visited the facility in December 2021 \u201cthey were able to see the blood on the wall\u201d.<\/p>\n The report says there are high levels of gender-based violence in al-Hawl, including attacks against women by IS affiliates for perceived \u201cmoral\u201d infractions, and sexual exploitation by members of the security forces and private individuals, while women have also been unlawfully separated from their children.<\/p>\n