A/HRC/42/51 of infants – following the closure of supply routes previously used by civilians to smuggle food and medicine. Ongoing violations throughout government-held areas impede the right of civilians to voluntary return, in safety and dignity, to their original or another destination of their choice.21 Al-Hol camp 81. Between January and March, SDF and United States-led international coalition forces intensified attacks in eastern Dayr al-Zawr Governorate, targeting the last ISIL strongholds (paras. 26–33 above). As a result, tens of thousands of individuals, including ISIL fighters and their family members, were encircled in an area no larger than some 500 square kilometres, in which resources were already scarce and services largely non-existent. Stranded, witnesses recounted how they lived in tents, subsisting with almost no food or water, and continuously moving in order to escape near-constant aerial and ground bombardment, which caused scores of civilian casualties. In some instances, ISIL terrorists prevented individuals, including family members and Yazidi women, from fleeing the area. Female survivors of the last battles in Baghuz consistently reported being able to escape only after their husbands had been killed in the fighting. Escapees, mostly women, children and older persons, described being compelled to flee through open fields in harsh winter conditions, often only at night, and forced to hide to survive, with limited access to food and water. 82. In response to the influx of displaced individuals from Baghuz, SDF established temporary managed sites some 700 metres away from the front lines – in violation of international humanitarian law22 – where escaping individuals were held with limited access to medicine and sanitary services for up to two days, pending completion of screening procedures. Men and boys as young as 12 years of age, perceived to be ISIL militants, were separated from women and children, and transferred to detention sites in which most are still being held, without adequate judicial guarantees in conditions conducive to detainee abuse. 83. Women and children, including the wounded and sick, were then crammed into open-air pickup trucks and transferred en masse to Al-Hol camp, in which – by the end of the offensive in March – approximately 73,000 individuals, 92 per cent of whom were women and children, were living. At least 390 preventable deaths were recorded, mostly due to pneumonia, dehydration or malnutrition, primarily affecting boys and girls as young as 5 years old, either en route to Al-Hol or shortly after arrival. Living conditions remain deplorable, with interviewees repeatedly stating how, as at the managed sites, screening procedures often delayed medical assistance despite the presence of visibly ill children, older persons and persons with disabilities, as well as pregnant women and new mothers. Tents were flooded by torrential rains, while dysentery, infections and skin diseases became rampant, compounding the long-term consequences of acute malnutrition. By the end of June, some 800 families had returned to Raqqah Governorate, while other encamped individuals had been transferred to countries in which they might be subject to torture, illtreatment or the death penalty in violation of the principle of non-refoulment. At the time of writing, some 70,000 persons subsist in Al-Hol camp. 84. Separated from the general population, some 11,000 family members of foreign ISIL fighters are being housed away from food and health points that serve the other residents of the camp. Guarded and fenced off, many described being denied food and prevented from accessing medical care, including for their infant children (some of whom bore visible shrapnel injuries, suffered acute malnutrition and/or eventually perished). SDF holds family members of ISIL fighters in at least two other similar camps, namely Al-Roj (Hasakah Governorate) and Ayn Isa camp (Raqqah Governorate). Incidents of the harassment of encamped women by armed SDF guards are under investigation. 21 22 See Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, principle 28. See Henckaerts and Doswald-Beck, Customary International Humanitarian Law, rule 121, which states that “persons deprived of their liberty must be held in premises which are removed from the combat zone and which safeguard their health and hygiene”. 15