Asayish Detains and Deports Displaced Families from Raqqa to Rural Aleppo

On the duration between the 25th and 30th of October 2018, the Asayish, under the Autonomous Administration, detained and then deported several internally displaced families, which resided in a random camp to the west of the city of Raqqa, on the pretext of not having a guarantor from the city’s people. In a separate incident, it has also arrested ten people from the same camp on the charge of smuggling elements of Daesh,[1] according to testimonies obtained by Syrians for Truth and Justice/STJ.    

On October 30, 2018, activist Salah al-Muftah told STJ the following:

“The Asayish/the Internal Security of the al-Jarniyah district stormed a random camp near the village of Mahmudli to the west of the Raqqa city and detained several families, internally displaced from the Uqayribat region, eastern rural Hama, about a hundred persons, including women and children, for not having residency documents and a guarantor from the city of Raqqa. The activist pointed out that these forces have notified these families of the necessity to have a guarantor or else one member of each family must join the Syrian Democratic Forces/SDF, as to allow them a stay in the province. It granted them a month to do so. However, the families failed to obtain a guarantor, and their sons refused to join SDF.”

The detention took place on October 25, 2018, the activist reported, and continued for several days, after which the Asayish released and transported them to the city of Mnabij, from where it transported them to the regions controlled by the armed opposition groups, which participated in the Operation Euphrates Shield, in the city of Jarabulus, rural Aleppo. The activist added:

“The Autonomous Administration stipulates that the internally displaced persons in the Raqqa province have a guarantor, who has a civil record in the same province. It also started to provide the displaced persons, from outside the province, with a residence document that has the name of the guarantor on.” 

In another incident, Tarek al-Nather, head of the local council of the Uqayribat town, rural Hama, told STJ on November 30, 2018, that the Asayish raided several tents in the same camp, near the village of Mahmudli, on November 28, 2018, and arrested 10 men, displaced from the Uqayribat town on the accusation of smuggling elements of the organization that refers to itself as the Islamic State/IS from Deir ez-Zor province to Turkey, while the destination to which the men were taken has not been identified yet.

On August 1, 2018, Human Rights Watch published a report addressing how the Autonomous Administration is unjustly confining IDPS to camps, while it confiscated their IDs and restricted their movement even when it comes to seeking healthcare services.[2] STJ has also published several reports on the conditions of IDP camps in Autonomous Administration-held regions. [3]