UN Calls on Canada to Repatriate Detainees from North-eastern Syria and Iraq

March 24, 2026 – The United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on Canada to repatriate 14 Canadian men and children (as well as two mothers of the children) in order to end what has in some cases been upwards of a decade of arbitrary detention under appalling conditions in north-eastern Syria and, more recently, in Iraq.   

In a concluding report (Online Link) from its 145^th session, the Committee noted that Canada had already repatriated from north-eastern Syria 30 Canadians (22 children and 8 women) since 2020, but expressed concern “about reports indicating that at least nine men and five Canadian children continue to be held in very difficult conditions in north-eastern Syria, together with two mothers who are not Canadian nationals.” 

The Committee also raised concerns that Canada has made repatriation of the children contingent on forced separation from their mothers. 

 

Multiple Violations

While pointing out this crisis violated Articles 6 (inherent right to life), 7 (prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment ) and 24 (non-discriminatory guarantees of child protection) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Committee called on Canada to “intensify its efforts to repatriate all its nationals currently held in armed conflict zones, in particular in the Syrian Arab Republic, together with the mothers of the Canadian children, through a clear and fair procedure that upholds the principle of the best interests of the child and ensures adequate access to rehabilitation services and care upon repatriation.”

 

In response to the report, human rights activist and international human rights lawyer Alex Neve, who visited some of the Canadian detainees in north-eastern Syria as part of a civic delegation in August 2023, declared: “The Human Rights Committee has, in fact, been generous in calling on Canada to ‘intensify its efforts’ to repatriate all of the Canadians the government has abandoned in north-eastern Syria for years, and now also in Iraq. The truth is that there are no efforts of any kind underway at all. Clearly this exhortation from the body responsible for overseeing one of the world's most important human rights instruments must finally catalyze action from the federal government. Given the precarious and rapidly evolving political, security and human rights situation in the region, it has never been more important - but also there has never been a clearer opportunity - to bring all Canadians home.”

 

The UN recommendations come in response to a brief (Online Link) submitted earlier this year by Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, which for years has led a campaign to repatriate the detainees. Group spokesperson Matthew Behrens noted that the Canadian detainees were on the verge of being illegally transferred to Iraq at the time the group’s brief was submitted, adding that the Committee’s reference to “armed conflict zones” is clearly intended to include those now held in Iraq. 

 

Canada Backtracks on Repatriation Pledge

Earlier this month, Canada’s ambassador in Baghdad led Iraqi officials to believe Canada would repatriate its citizens, only to see Global Affairs Canada (GAC) walk back that commitment once the office of Iraqi national security adviser Qasim Al-Araji posted online about Canada’s “readiness to receive its nationals among the detainees who were recently handed over” to Iraq.

"Canada is not currently in the process of repatriating any detained Canadians from Iraq," GAC subsequently wrote to Sally Lane, the mother of the longest held detainee, Canadian Jack Letts.

“Canada has subcontracted my son Jack’s arbitrary detention and torture to Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria and now Iraq for almost nine full years in complete violation of his Charter rights and this country’s international human right commitments,” Lane said. “Will Canada continue to defy the calls from many United Nations Special Rapporteurs on human rights, and now this committee, to repatriate my son and the other Canadians?”

Lane is especially incensed that Canada did nothing to prevent the illegal transfer of her son and other Canadians to Iraq where, in addition to arbitrary detention, they face the prospect of torture, unfair trials based on brutally coerced statements, and possible execution under a judicial system widely condemned for its failure to uphold international fair trial standards.

“Is Canada really going to allow my son’s death by hanging?” asked Lane, who has not seen the 30-year-old Jack since he was 18 and traveled to Syria to assist those under attack by the former Assad regime. “Canada refuses to justify its deliberate inaction to me; perhaps they can now explain to the UN why they condone arbitrary detention, torture and, possibly, execution?”

The UN’s report is the latest in a significant body of repatriation calls from a diverse set of voices, from the US State Department, UN Special Rapporteurs, Human Rights Watch, Save the Children, former Canadian Justice Minister Allan Rock and hundreds of Canadian legal professionals, to the International Committee of the Red Cross, a Canadian Parliamentary committee, the Kurdish jailers in NE Syria, and, more recently, Iraqi officials currently holding five Canadian men who were illegally transferred to their custody by the US in January and February, 2026.

“Every day, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand posts that Canada is there for its citizens in the region, and has rightly expended considerable resources to help with evacuations,” Behrens says. “But while even Canadian troops have pulled out of Iraq because it has been deemed too dangerous for them, Anand has chosen to abandon these unarmed, defenceless, and traumatized Canadians in detention centres that are perilously close to the bombing.” 

 

Canada’s Ongoing History of Obstruction

The issue of Canadians illegally detained in north-eastern Syria and now Iraq has previously been challenged at the Federal Court, which in January 2023 issued a decision calling on Ottawa to take the necessary steps to repatriate the men. Notably, the Court wrote: “The [Government of Canada] Respondents filed no evidence identifying the Applicants’ motives for their travel or of their activities in the region. Notably the Respondents do not allege any of the Applicants engaged in or assisted in terrorist activities. The Respondents affirmed this position at the hearing,” adding that “Canadians are entitled to have political opinions, no matter how abhorrent they may be to other Canadians. The limitation is when Canadian opinion holders take actions, whether inside or outside of Canada, that constitute offences against Canadian law including the Criminal Code of Canada. However there is no evidence to that effect before this Court.”

That decision was appealed and overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal which, while declining to rule in favour of the detainees, nonetheless reminded the government that “these reasons should not be taken to discourage the Government of Canada from making efforts on its own to bring about [repatriation].” The Supreme Court twice refused to hear an appeal.

 

In November 2024, Global Affairs Canada invited representatives of the male detainees to make submissions on the question of whether Canada would consider repatriation under a widely criticized “Policy Framework” that was found to discriminate against the men by the Federal Court (that Framework is also the subject of a Canadian Human Rights Commission complaint launched in May 2025). Despite the brutal conditions endured by the men and the passing of 15 months, Global Affairs Canada and Public Safety have yet to render a decision after receiving extensive submissions. 

 

The toll this has taken on families is severe. John Letts, father of Jack Letts, said: “Mr. Carney claims he wants Canada to lead a new democratic world order based on genuinely ethical values, but it seems he wants to outsource Canada’s dirty work abroad. He’d prefer Canadian citizens to be burned as witches out of sight, far from home, rather than be returned and investigated to see if they’ve actually done something wrong. We know the Federal Court of Canada has said there’s no evidence they've committed a crime. This injustice has been going on for 10 years. My Canadian son is dying of torture and neglect, and Canada won't lift a finger to help. When is this nightmare going to end?”

 

For more information: Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, tasc@web.ca 

Families of Canadian Detainees Transferred to Iraq Demand Answers from Ottawa

One of many vigils held at Global Affairs Canada in support of Canadian family repatriation from Northeast Syria and, now, Iraq. 

OTTAWA – Almost a month after the United States began its illegal transfer of thousands of detainees from arbitrary detention in northeast Syria to arbitrary detention in Iraq, and even after the Iraqi Ministry of Justice has posted that 5 Canadians are in its custody, families of these long-suffering men still have no official confirmation of their location or well-being.

Family members are demanding that Global Affairs Canada (GAC) take immediate steps to confirm the status of their loved ones and repatriate them to Canada.

“We, along with the families, have repeatedly shared with Global Affairs Canada the illegal nature of these forced transfers, the brutal detention conditions in Iraq, our concerns about unfair investigations and trials, and the distinct fear of execution,” explains Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture coordinator Matthew Behrens. “We have also shared the repeated public pleas of both senior Iraqi leaders as well as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for countries like Canada to repatriate their citizens. But Canada refuses to cooperate with its allies and these families to resolve this decade-long human rights crisis by bringing everyone home.”

Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture recently submitted a brief to the United Nations, urging the global body to call on Canada to immediately repatriate all detainees, some of whom have been held almost 9 years without charge or judicial review of their detention.

“Sayyida,” the mother of one of the detainees, despairs at the fact that Global Affairs Canada has yet to confirm her son’s location either in Syria or in Iraq. “The dreams I had of my son coming back have vanished,” Sayyida says. “The move to Iraq puts my son at risk of enforced disappearance, which could place him at greater risk of being tortured or killed. I send email after email and make call after call to Global Affairs Canada asking about my son’s whereabouts, hoping for an answer that will relieve my pain, but all I receive is a long period of silence followed by the claim that they do not know where he is. I find this difficult to believe when the US knows all of the detainees and has coordinated this whole operation. My family is going through a lot because of this. We miss him so much in everything we do, and there’s a big part of our life gone without him. When will this nightmare end?”

Sally Lane, the mother of Canadian Jack Letts, says she received a letter on February 13 from Global Affairs Canada stating that Canada has “received preliminary information that indicates that your son Jack Letts may be among the individuals transferred. Please note that the information we have received at this time is incomplete and is not a direct match for the name we have on file, so we cannot confirm his identity with certainty.”

“What should I take away from this email sent a week ago?” Lane asks. “Is the Canadian government so inept that it cannot make a simple confirmation of Jack’s location and well-being when our embassy is in the same city that now holds the detainees? Or is a Canadian government that has for 9 years refused the repatriation requests of Jack’s jailers, and fought us all the way to the Supreme Court, still refusing to stand up for the rights of Jack and the other Canadian men because they don’t want them to come home? We know the Federal Court has said there is no evidence that Jack or the other men have committed crimes or acts of violence. What can we conclude here other than that this is state-sponsored Islamophobia?”

John Letts, Jack’s father, points out that the current crisis could have been avoided had Canada acted on repeated requests over 9 years by Kurdish authorities to repatriate his son. “We know the US has interviewed all of the men and never sought to extradite them. The FBI has seen Jack on numerous occasions. It beggars belief that Canada cannot confirm where he is even after the Iraqis have said they have five Canadians in their custody and the US would have a list of everyone it illegally sent to Iraq. It’s not rocket science for the Canadian embassy to demand immediate access to the men and to facilitate visits with us and legal counsel.” 

The long-standing issue of Canada’s refusal to repatriate its citizens from northeast Syria (Canada has, under threat of court action, returned 32 women and children) led international human rights lawyer and former Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada Alex Neve to join a civil society delegation in 2023 (alongside Senator Kim Pate, former GAC official Scott Heatherington, and human rights lawyer Hadayt Nazami) that visited Letts and other detainees. 

Neve says he had hoped that the change of government in Damascus in December 2024 would provide “the long overdue opening to address years of contemptuous disregard for human rights throughout the country. It should have become the moment when the Canadian government finally took action to protect the rights of Canadians, including children, unlawfully locked up in prisons and detention camps in the northeast. Instead, the government has consistently refused to intervene. The news that Canadian prisoners are now being illegally transferred to jails in Iraq, where they face a serious risk of torture and the death penalty, must become the turning point. Prime Minister Carney's government must - finally - act, and bring all Canadians home, to safety, to human rights protection, and to face justice when there is evidence of criminality.”

It’s a sentiment also shared by “Israa,” a Canadian woman who notes that she and her family “have been begging Global Affairs Canada for answers. For years we have written emails, made calls, submitted requests, and pleaded for the most basic information that every family deserves: Is he alive? Is he safe? What is being done to protect him? And for years, Global Affairs Canada has responded with silence, delays, and vague empty statements. They have avoided answering our questions and have refused to provide us with clear answers. They have refused to be transparent and have refused to treat our loved one like what he is, a Canadian citizen with rights. This silence is not neutral and has consequences.”

Israa notes that the United Nations as well as international human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have long shared with Ottawa their findings of the appalling conditions endured by the male detainees in northeast Syria, conditions that are likely to be replicated in Iraq. “These conditions destroy people physically and psychologically. And if our loved one has been transferred to Iraq, the danger is even more severe. Iraq has a well-documented record of torture, unfair trails, and executions. If Canada has allowed that to happen, through action or inaction, then Canada has effectively signed their torture and death certificates. 

“Every single day, our family lives with the grief and constant fear of not knowing whether our loved one is alive or dead,” Israa says. “We live with the helplessness and anger we feel and are forced to imagine the worst because the Canadian government refuses to tell us the truth. My loved one is not a file or case number. He is a human being. He is loved. He is missed. And he deserves to come home. We will not stop speaking and fighting. We will not allow him to be forgotten.”

In addition to the nine detained Canadian men whose whereabouts remain unconfirmed, Canada is still refusing to issue temporary residents permits to two women so that they could come to Canada together with their five Canadian children, all of whom have been illegally detained in northeast Syria for six years. They submitted those permit applications three years ago.

For more information: Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, tasc@web.ca, 613-300-9536

 
     

Families of Canadian Detainees in Syria Demand Ottawa Prevent Renditions to Torture in Iraq

 

January 22, 2026 – Canadian families whose loved ones have been arbitrarily detained for up to 9 years under appalling conditions in northeast Syrian prisons and prison camps are calling on Ottawa to immediately repatriate them before they are rendered to potential torture in Iraq.

The demand comes on the heels of a United States CENTCOM statement that thousands of detainees similarly held for years without charge or access to any form of judicial review are in the process of being transferred to Iraq during a 4-day ceasefire that follows weeks of armed conflict between the new government in Damascus and the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who have held custody of the Canadians. 

Amnesty International has pointed out that Iraq remains a country rife with arbitrary detention, torture, a systemic failure to conduct fair trials, and execution in so-called national security cases.

“This is an act of extraordinary rendition to torture on top of the years of arbitrary detention, torture, and complete abandonment of our loved ones by the Canadian government,” said Sally Lane, mother of the longest held detainee, Jack Letts. “How on earth can Canada stand by when we’ve informed them that my son and other Canadian citizens are now at risk of going from one legal black hole into another when all along, all they’ve had to do is agree to the request of Jack’s jailers and the US State Department for repatriation? Canada doesn’t actually have to do anything besides make a request and provide travel documents. The Americans do the rest.” 

The issue of repatriation from northeast Syria has long been a point of contention resisted by the federal government, which has only repatriated Canadians – to date, 32 formerly detained women and children – when forced to by public pressure and legal action. But Global Affairs Canada and Public Safety Canada have expended millions to try and prevent the return of the remaining 9 men while also refusing to grant temporary residence permits to the two mothers of five Canadian children who remain detained.

“This is state-sponsored Islamophobia in action,” explained Matthew Behrens of Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, which for years has worked to bring the Canadians home. “The Federal Court of Canada concluded there is absolutely no evidence that these men have ever been involved in acts of violence or criminality, but unfortunately, they have all been tarred with the same unsubstantiated security brush simply because as Muslim men they were in Syria at a particular time in history and had no way of escaping. And Canada has refused to end their detention in what many have called Guantanamo in the Desert, where over half of the tens of thousands of detainees are children.”

 

(Jack Letts, during a prison interview with CTV's W5, Fall, 2024, Syria)

Lane notes that her son had gone to Syria to help the people suffering under Assad’s barrel bombs and mass torture, and had been detained on three occasions by ISIS for opposing their hateful ideology and atrocities. When he finally escaped in May 2017, he was captured by the Kurdish SDF, and has been held without charge or access to lawyers, family, or a judicial review ever since.

Global Affairs Canada and Public Safety Canada currently operate under a “Policy Framework” that determines whether or not they will consider repatriation of the Canadians. The Framework has been criticized as discriminatory and fundamentally flawed by the Federal Court of Canada, human rights organizations and international law experts. In December, 2024, at the invitation of the government, family members presented submissions to those departments demanding repatriation, but more than 13 months later, have received no response.

“When the Two Michaels were arbitrarily detained in China, Canada started a global coalition against such detention and did everything under the sun to bring them home, as well they should,” said John Letts, Jack’s father. “And yet when it comes to Muslim Canadians, the government has not only looked away. It has actively fought us and tried to prevent our loved ones from exercising their Charter right to come home. Unless they act in the coming days, will our families be condemned to another decade of this torturous black hole? It’s all well and good for Prime Minister Carney to extol the importance of international law at Davos, but my long-suffering son knows that this is just more hot air from Canada.” 

Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture

2583 Carling Ave., Unit M052

Ottawa, ON K2B 7H7

(613) 300-9536

CENTCOM Statement: https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/4383698/us-forces-launch-mission-in-syria-to-transfer-isis-detainees-to-iraq/