Missing Canadian women and girls called family from Syrian camp: Edmonton lawyer

The two women and three teens who were to be repatriated from Syria said they're alive but have been mistreated, need medical attention and have lost all their possessions.

A lawyer for two Canadian women and three teen girls who were to be repatriated from northeastern Syria earlier this month says they were mistreated by guards and are being detained in a camp primarily holding family members of individuals with alleged links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Edmonton lawyer Zachary Al-Khatib said one of the women was able to make a brief phone call to a family member in Canada early Tuesday before the call was cut off.

He said the woman indicated they were alive and had been moved to the Roj camp but had been mistreated, needed medical attention and had all their possessions taken.

“It was very concerning for the family obviously to hear this after 11 days of nothing,” he said.

Under an agreement with Global Affairs Canada, the group of five was to be transported from the Al-Hol camp, where they had been detained, to the Roj camp to join four other women and 10 children. The others returned to Canada on April 6.

Al-Khatib said while those still in Syria were concerned about their safety with the transfer between camps, the Canadian government told them they had communicated with Kurdish forces running the Al-Hol camp.

“They were given assurances that they would be safe,” he said. “Then when they presented themselves to be transported, they went missing for 11 days and the government had no answers.”

Al-Khatib said Canada needs to take immediate steps to ensure the women and girls are safe and repatriated.