III. CIRCUMSTANCES OF DETENTION There is no question that the women and children located in the al Hol and Roj camps are subject to forced detention there. The camps are enclosed by 2-3 metre high fences, with entry and exit via metal gates controlled by armed SDF personnel. When RSI visited, the entrance to the al Hol Annex was overseen by six armed guards. 27. There is no question that the women and children located in the al Hol and Roj camps are subject to forced detention there. The camps are enclosed by 2-3 metre high fences, with entry and exit via metal gates controlled by armed personnel. When RSI visited, the entrance to the al Hol Annex was overseen by six armed guards. Further, RSI was told of instances where guards shot at women and children attempting to escape the facilities, or in response to unrest. ‘I know a Belgian woman who was in solitary confinement for a month with her five-year old daughter. They were in a room of the same size as toilets, in the dark,’ a French woman said. 28. Within the camps themselves, the SDF operate a series of additional restrictions, and have placed women and children in crowded internal ‘gaols,’ including in solitary confinement, for various alleged infractions. A Belgian woman told RSI, ‘Women are taken away at night, we don’t know where.’ RSI has recorded at least 10 cases of Belgian, French, and German women being gaoled within the al Hol Annex. Among these, in six instances children were detained alongside their mothers. ‘I know a Belgian woman who was in solitary confinement for a month with her five-year old daughter. They were in a room of the same size as toilets, in the dark,’ a French woman said. RSI has also learned of detention in a facility within, or next to the camp, or transport to a women’s prison near the town of Qamishli. Some women recounted being blindfolded in transit, and some described the prison as an underground facility without light. Despite requests, RSI was not granted access to any of these additional facilities during our time in North East Syria. 29. In a further instance of detention in mid-2019, a mother of two was gaoled with her children for almost a month. She told RSI: ‘I spent 26 days – I counted them one by one – in the prison that is opposite the camp. I was never told why I was jailed. It’s not a real prison, rather two small rooms with a very small courtyard in the middle. Many Syrian, Iraqi and foreign women were crammed there. Conditions were very, very harsh. We slept on the floor. It was so small that at night it was not possible to move along. They gave us little to eat and we all had diarrhoea. My children were sick too.’ 16 RIGHTS & SECURITY INTERNATIONAL