46. The relationship between women in camps and the SDF forces is generally tense. RSI has received numerous reports of beatings, verbal abuse, and coercive behaviour on the part of camp authorities. A European mother of a three-year-old said, ‘During a large search operation, a man wearing a balaclava and carrying heavy weapons pointed his gun at me, while I was not doing anything and I was with my son.’ She also reported that fellow detainees were beaten by camp managers. RSI has learned that infractions such as detainees being caught with mobile phones can lead to corporal punishment or solitary confinement. 47. The constant physical threat has clear mental health effects. ‘The context in al Hol is psychological stress, insecurity, and fear. It is hell,’ said Professor Loots, a Belgian Professor of Psychology who travelled with a Belgian medical team to visit the camps in 2019. Some mothers have told RSI that they refuse to let their children play outside their tents due to their fear of what could happen to them. ‘At night, when I’m sleeping, I’m afraid that security forces will enter and search my tent,’ a French woman in the al Hol camp told RSI. Speaking to RSI of the atmosphere in the Roj camp over the summer of 2020, one woman noted, ‘It’s very frightening and intimidating. I’ve never felt so unsafe.’ Particular Risks for Children The majority of the occupants of al Hol and Roj camps are children, and they are particularly at risk of serious harm. Of the 517 people recorded as dying in the al Hol camp in 2019, 371 were children. 48. The majority of the occupants of al Hol and Roj camps are children, and they are particularly at risk of serious harm. Of the 517 people recorded as dying in the al Hol camp in 2019, 371 were children.43 RSI’s findings indicate that children in the camps, together with their mothers, are not only subject to considerable physical and mental harm, but also suffer from specific risks, including the risk for male children of being forcibly removed from their families by SDF authorities as they grow older. This treatment arguably infringes children’s rights to life, security, and humane treatment, as well as violating the key principle under international law that the best interests of the child must be the tantamount consideration when officials make decisions affecting children. “Last winter three young children burned alive. We saw the bodies of the babies.” 49. RSI has recorded a number of instances where children of various nationalities have died in the al Hol Annex from war wounds, malnutrition, severe dehydration, respiratory illness, hypothermia, and carbon monoxide poisoning from tent heaters, or from tent fires caused by the same unsafe heating devices. ‘Last winter three young children burned alive. We saw the bodies of the babies,’ one European woman told RSI. In addition, RSI has been informed of the deaths of at least nine European children below the age of three across the camps, including five Belgian children (a one-year-old who died from malnutrition, one- 21 RIGHTS & SECURITY INTERNATIONAL