The SDF’s International Humanitarian Law Obligations to Islamic State Detainees During the Coronavirus  Pandemic

Between March and June, former Islamic State fighters held at Ghweran prison in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah rioted three times, at various points seizing control of sections of the prison. According to some media reports, the riots stemmed not only from detainees’ frustration over their long-standing legal limbo but also from dissatisfaction with overcrowded and unhygienic conditions. Concern over these conditions has only been exacerbated by the introduction of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, the respiratory disease it causes, to the region. 

The makeshift prison—formerly a school—is controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and holds an estimated 5,000 local and foreign fighters. Detainees are packed into cells, which themselves have only one, partially walled-off latrine. Meanwhile, the facilities are ill equipped to deal with medical issues. In 2019, scores of incoming fighters died due to lack of medical care sufficient to deal with injuries sustained during the fall of Baghouz. Today, Ghweran remains unequipped to address a suspected outbreak of tuberculosis that has killed at least two detainees and likely infected 100 others. 

And the spread of COVID-19 in northeastern Syria has only cast a harsher light on these inadequate conditions. Although no cases have yet been reported among detainees at Ghweran (though at least 280 have been reported in the region), prison conditions mean that if the coronavirus is introduced to Ghweran, an outbreak will spread rapidly. This is also the case at other SDF-controlled detention facilities in the region, such as al-Shadadi prison, which houses another 2,500 former fighters. And al-Hol camp, where more than 65,000 Islamic State-affiliated family members are being detained in similarly cramped and unsanitary conditions, recently reported its first COVID-19 case.

So, it’s worth taking a closer look at the specific health-care-related obligations that international humanitarian law (IHL) imposes on the SDF, a non-state armed group (NSAG), at Ghweran in light of the pandemic.

The Current Response

Around the time of the spring riots, governmental and multinational bodies had begun sending security, medical, and personal protective equipment (PPE) to the prisons and camps in northeastern Syria. In late March, the U.S.-led coalition reported providing $1.2 million in supplies. These included latex gloves, masks, surgical kits, defibrillators, and oximeters sent to hospitals and detention facilities in the area, as well as masks, shields, and batons distributed to SDF personnel guarding Islamic State detainees. And in April, the coalition reported sending sanitizing and medical supplies to regional detention facilities, including handwashing stations, disinfecting wipes, face masks and examination gloves. (In total, the coalition reports sending throughout the spring and summer approximately $2 million in detention and security equipment, as well as PPE.)

Coalition spokesperson Col. Myles Caggins has also reiterated the U.S. military’s commitment to renovating SDF detention facilities “to help ensure that SDF can continue to detain [Islamic State] fighters securely and humanely.” This commitment included increasing funding from $10 million to $20 million for improving existing facilities and building new detention structures. And despite some pandemic-related delays to survey team site visits, the coalition reported a site visit to the Hasakah facility to observe living conditions, as well as the initiation of unspecified living condition improvements at other facilities. 

Nonetheless, officials with the Syrian Democratic Council—the political wing of the SDF and de facto governing authority in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria—have expressed skepticism that the aid shipments would be sufficient to prepare the prisons for a potential coronavirus outbreak, or that renovation of the prisons would actually move forward. And given the scarcity of medical resources in northeastern Syria, humanitarian organizations have warned that a more widespread coronavirus outbreak in the region is likely to have a catastrophic impact. As a result, these groups have reiterated calls to expand aid access to northeastern Syria (a measure that has been made more difficult by Security Council action Advertise on IT Security News.