(BBC) A leading human rights group has challenged the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq over their screening process for men and adolescents fleeing so-called Islamic State (IS).
\nAll civilians seeking refuge in Kurdish areas are screened for IS links but males aged 15 and over are held separately for long periods of time.
\nHuman Rights Watch says this violates “basic due process” under Iraqi law.
\nKurdish and Iraqi government forces are advancing on IS’s stronghold of Mosul.
\nThe city was overrun by the jihadists in the summer of 2014.
\nKurdish officials said hasty checks could have “catastrophic consequences”.
\nA major concern for Kurdish and Iraqi authorities is the possibility of IS sleeper cells infiltrating local communities.
\nLast Friday, IS militants attacked Kurdish government buildings in the city of Kirkuk, east of Mosul, killing at least 46 people. On Sunday IS militants launched an attack on Rutba in Anbar province, killing at least seven policemen.
\nBattle for Mosul: The story so far
\nVoices from Mosul as battle nears
\nDodging ghosts of IS in the desert
\n‘International standards’
\nLama Fakih, deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch (HRW), said: “No-one should be detained unless there is reason to suspect them personally of criminal activity.”
\nThe only legal basis for detaining a person in Iraq was if the individual was suspected of having committed a crime, HRW argued.
\nKurdish officials responded in a detailed letter, saying detention and screening were important for security.
\nA deputy minister, Dr Dindar Zebari, said that “if even one individual who proves to be an IS member” was let enter Kurdish territory “due to a hurried screening process”, there could be “catastrophic consequences” for the region’s security situation.
\nBut he also insisted that the security forces made “serious efforts” to observe “international standards of human rights in the security screening process”.
\nDr Zebari attributed delays in processing or detention to the large number of people fleeing IS-controlled areas and the lack of available security personnel to carry out security checks.
\n‘Hours or months’
\nIn its report, HRW said civilians were transported to Debaga displacement camp after initial screening checks before men and boys were sent to an adjacent site.
\nDetainees were able to communicate with their families through the fences at the facility and had access to basic aid.
\nWhile men and boys were sometimes held for hours, others had been held for days, weeks or months without charge or evidence of any involvement with IS, according to HRW.
\nOne young man, a former engineering student at Mosul University, fled the city in early October after missing two years of studies.
\nAs he travelled to Kirkuk he was stopped at a checkpoint by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters who assured him he would be allowed to leave within two days.
\nBut when HRW interviewed him, he said he had been in the detention facility for 18 days.
\nTents are pictured in Debaga refugee camp where people displaced by fighting in and around Mosul have sought shelter, on October 22, 2016 in Debaga near Mosul, Iraq.Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
\nImage caption
\nDebaga displacement camp near Mosul
\nOther camp residents said men and boys suspected of affiliation with IS had disappeared from the camp. Their families were not informed where they were taken, HRW said.
\nA woman at the camp was quoted as saying that her 30-year-old son, who she said had no links to IS, had disappeared from the detention facility after being held for 18 days.
\nShe was afraid to ask the security services where they had taken him, HRW said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(BBC) A leading human rights group has challenged the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq over their screening process for men and adolescents fleeing so-called Islamic State (IS). All civilians seeking refuge in Kurdish areas are screened for IS links but males aged 15 and over are held separately for long periods of time. Human Rights Watch says this violates “basic… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}