UN, Rights Watchdogs Urge Canada to Save Its ‘Arbitrarily Detained’ Children in Syria

Syrian refugees walk through a camp for the displaced muddied by recent rains near the village of Kafr Aruq, in Idlib province, Syria, on Jan. 28, 2021. A United Nations rights' advocate and Human Rights Watch Canada say the Trudeau government isn't living up to its new international campaign against arbitrary detention because it is abandoning 25 Canadian children trapped in northern Syria. Ghaith Alsayed/AP/The Canadian Press

OTTAWA—A United Nations rights advocate and Human Rights Watch Canada say the Trudeau government isn’t living up to its new international campaign against arbitrary detention because it is abandoning 25 Canadian children trapped in northern Syria.

Fionnuala Ni Aolain, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights while Countering terrorism, says Canada is one of 57 countries on a “list of shame” because it won’t take active steps to repatriate its foreign nationals trapped in Kurdish-controlled camps in northern Syria.