UN's Bachelet: 55,000 linked to ISIS in Syria and Iraq should be tried or freed

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Monday (June 24) that 55,000 captured ISIS militiamen, including foreigners, and their families detained in Syria and Iraq should face fair prosecution or be freed, Reuters reported.

States “must assume responsibility for their nationals” and should not inflict statelessness on fighters’ children who have already suffered so much, Bachelet also told the UN Human Rights Council as it opened a three-week session in Geneva.

The 55,000 include alleged foreign fighters from nearly 50 countries and 11,000 family members held at the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria “in deeply sub-standard conditions”, she said.

“Foreign family members should be repatriated unless they are to be prosecuted for crimes in accordance with international standards. Children, in particular, have suffered grievous violations of their rights - including those who may have been indoctrinated or recruited by ISIS to perpetrate violent acts,” Bachelet said.