A temporary pause in services provided by a US State Department contractor in North East Syria underscored the risks that detention camps there could collapse without American support.
Blumont, the American organisation that provides security and humanitarian assistance to these prison camps, was told to stop work on 24 January by the US state department.
Reprieve’s deputy executive director Dan Dolan warned in this Guardian article, and here in The Times, about the security implications of an aid cut:
“This is a slow-motion crisis, years in the making, that is suddenly on fast-forward. Security experts and the Kurdish administration themselves have long warned that the detention camps in north-east Syria could collapse. Successive US governments have said the only solution is for countries to repatriate their nationals, and since the fall of Assad, the regional security situation is more volatile than ever.”
Humanitarian groups are also worried about the effect on women and children unlawfully detained in North East Syria if US aid cuts take effect, reports The Guardian.
Even without the cessation of Blumont’s services, women and children already live in horrendous conditions. They sleep in tents with kerosene heaters and suffer from the fumes emitted from nearby oil fields.
