A/HRC/37/72 physician onsite when children required care. At times, access to food was limited to one loaf of bread per day. Access to water was also limited, with one 20-litre tank distributed per day per family, which had to be rationed for cooking, drinking, and sanitation. 6. On 22 October, civilians in al-Sad camp organised a protest against SDF, hoping their demonstration would allow them to leave. The protest was ultimately quelled after SDF soldiers fired their guns into the air. Ultimately, once vetted, some internally displaced persons were still forced to pay $100 to exit al-Sad camp. One family was forced to pay $100 per vehicle to leave, even though the SDF administration lost their identification documents. The same family was unable to depart towards Kurdish-held areas, and was instead diverted by SDF towards northern Idlib. There, displaced for the second time, they were met again by tents in the winter. 7. Equally inadequate living conditions were echoed by civilians in Mabrouka camp, located in Ras al-Ayn countryside (Hasakah). There, internally displaced persons recalled a lack of access to sufficient food, water, and medical care, though tents, mattresses, and blankets were distributed to new arrivals. Additional water had to be purchased, with 20 litres costing over $9 USD. Some civilians spoke of the water being unpotable and causing diarrhoea in children. One family recalled being given only four cans of sardines upon arrival. In order to cook, they were forced to burn their clothes to maintain fires, while other families lacked the means to purchase prohibitively expensive food sold by SDF soldiers. 8. Mabrouka camp further lacked sanitary latrines, which prompted open defecation and exposure to infectious disease. In numerous instances, no doctors were onsite, and internally displaced persons recalled being placed under the care of paramedics whose medical assistance was limited to dispersing paracetamol. Expectant mothers in Mabrouka were left particularly vulnerable, as the camp lacked specialised maternity care. Only those women who could afford to pay SDF authorities were taken to a nearby hospital to deliver, while those who could not delivered babies on unhygienic campgrounds with the support of other displaced women. As in al-Sad, civilians in Mabrouka camp also organised a protest against deplorable living conditions on 15 December. 9. Some internally displaced persons in Mabrouka explained how SDF targeted certain families for forced conscription, while those who did not have sons were reportedly made to pay $300 USD to SDF soldiers. Numerous interviewees described Mabrouka camp as being akin to a “prison”, with complete restrictions on movement and no possibility to receive visitors. One encamped civilian, unable to wait out his vetting, paid $68 USD to an SDF member in order to obtain a “departure permit”, while others paid up to $100 USD each. 10. Equally inadequate living conditions were reported by civilians who transited through Ain Issa Cotton Factory camp (Raqqah). There, civilians recalled how one loaf of bread was sold to them by SDF members for $3 USD. Owing to living conditions inside the camp, specific pathologies emerged including diarrhoea and skin disease. On 24 August, the SDF officially admitted to “a very large shortage of medical staff, medicines, and teachers” at Ain Issa. 3 On 27 August, the SDF further conceded unsatisfactory living conditions when it announced a fumigation campaign to deal with “the problem of snakes, scorpions, and poisonous desert animals” at the camp, which it noted posed a particularly harmful threat to children.4 Women and girls were also particularly affected due to a lack of adequate latrines, with many recalling having waited until dark to relieve themselves in open areas due to fears of assault, humiliation, as well as the cultural sensitivity of using a latrine which was also being used by males. 11. Civilians further lamented the camp’s desolate location by recalling limited mobile network signals, which inhibited their ability to communicate with family. On the rare occasion journalists were admitted to Ain Issa, they were required to interview encamped residents in the presence of an SDF escort. 3 4 28 FORCES SYRIA DEMOCRACY, Ain Issa Camp Under Microscope, available at www.sdfpress.com/en/2017/08/ain-issa-camp-under-microscope. FORCES SYRIA DEMOCRACY, Insecticide Spraying Campaign Inside Ain Issa Camp, available at www.sdf-press.com/en/2017/08/insecticide-spraying-campaign-inside-ain-issa-camp.