‘Nearly 30,000 children suffering rights abuses in northeastern Syria’

Geneva: Five years after the Islamic State group lost the last sliver of land it controlled in Syria, nearly 30,000 children of militants and their supporters of various nationalities are suffering abuse in camps, prisons and rehabilitation centres in the war-torn country’s northwest, a UN-backed commission said Monday.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria said most of the children were brought by their parents to parts of Syria and Iraq after the extremists declared a caliphate there in 2014, and it urged all countries with children in Syria to repatriate them and integrate them into their societies. The largest number of children are staying at al-Hol Camp, which is housing tens of thousands of people, mostly wives and children of IS fighters as well as supporters of the militant group. A smaller number of children are staying at Roj Camp, while teenage boys are kept in jails and rehabilitation run by

Democratic Forces.