Iraq: Families of Alleged ISIS Members Denied IDs | WPN World People News

Iraqi security officers are routinely denying relatives of suspected Islamic State (also known as ISIS) members the security clearance needed to obtain identity cards and other documents, Human Rights Watch said on Feb 25, 2018. Denying government benefits because of perceived family relationships instead of individual security determinations is a form of collective punishment prohibited under international human rights law.

Mosul’s Civil Status Directorate.

Iraqis lacking full civil documentation can readily be deprived of their basic rights. They cannot freely move around for fear of arrest, nor can they get a job or apply for welfare benefits. Children denied birth certificates may be considered stateless and may not be allowed to enroll in school. Women unable to obtain death certificates for their spouses are unable to inherit property or remarry.

“Iraq’s security forces are marginalizing thousands of families of ISIS suspects by depriving them of the basic documents they need to rebuild their lives,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Unless this collective punishment stops, the authorities will be further destabilizing the situation in Mosul and other former ISIS-held cities.”

Since late January 2018, Human Rights Watch has interviewed 18 people in Mosul, including lawyers, aid workers, security officials, community leaders, a government representative, and a Mosul resident about the obstacles facing immediate relatives of suspected ISIS members. Human Rights Watch was unable to speak to any families directly, many of whom fled the city or were hiding, fearing attack.

Those interviewed said that a primary hurdle families of suspected ISIS members faced in integrating safely back into the community was their inability to obtain civil documentation, including birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates, identity and welfare cards, and passports. Obtaining these documents requires a security screening by Interior Ministry, Intelligence, or National Security Service (NSS) officers, and these families automatically fail the security screening because of their relatives’ suspected ISIS affiliation.

The absence of valid identity documents especially affects freedom of movement. Wathiq al-Hamdani, then Mosul’s police chief, told Human Rights Watch that moving around the city or anywhere in Iraq without valid IDs was extremely dangerous and put the person at risk of arrest. Families living in camps for displaced people were at times prevented from leaving the camps, even for medical treatment, because security forces required them to leave valid IDs in the camp to guarantee their return.

Nearly all families who lived under ISIS rule between 2014 and 2017 are missing one or more civil documents. ISIS authorities regularly confiscated official documentation and issued their own, which the Iraqi authorities do not recognize. In addition, state security forces confiscated some families’ documents as they fled fighting or arrived at camps for displaced people.

In November 2016, six families who had just fled ISIS control told Human Rights Watch that when they showed ISIS-issued documents to officials at a camp for displaced people, the officials refused to issue them new documents. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that families living in camps may be unable to access basic humanitarian aid if they do not have civil documentation, including marriage certificates.

Iraqis seeking new or replacement civil documents need to first obtain an application form from a judge and take it to the Civil Status Directorate, where intelligence and National Security Service officers run a security check. If the applicant has an immediate relative whose name appears on a wanted list, the applicant automatically fails the security check and the application is denied.

Applicants from ISIS-controlled areas also faced security risks when they approached the Civil Status Directorate without a lawyer to help obtain the documents. The lawyers said they had witnessed intelligence officials arresting applicants in some cases, although they could not provide details regarding these arrests. A senior police chief in Mosul confirmed that security forces were arresting and interrogating these applicants and admitted that his officers often treated them “very badly,” even if the officers did not arrest them.

In some cases, women whose husbands died while living under ISIS control are presumed to have had an ISIS-affiliated husband and fail their security check, lawyers said. In a few cases, one lawyer said, children in their late teens – but not their parents – have been able to get the security clearance and obtain their documents. However, only children able to travel to court on their own could do this.

One lawyer said that when he took the mother of an ISIS fighter and the wife of an ISIS member and their son to the directorate to seek a security clearance, an intelligence officer threatened him, saying “Do not bring any cases like this again. What are you, an ISIS supporter?” Because of incidents such as this, lawyers said, lawyers were reluctant to assist people with a suspected ISIS relative, even children, who were seeking civil documentation, because of the risk they faced and to themselves and the likelihood that they would be refused.

The lawyers and government officials knew of no provision in Iraqi law that prevents these families from obtaining their civil documentation. Given this de facto prohibition, Iraq’s highest authorities, such as Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s office, would need to issue orders to remove the obstacles, the lawyers said.

Prime Minister al-Abadi and Interior Minister Qasim Mohammad Jalal al-Araji should state publicly that all Iraqi families have the legal right to obtain civil documentation regardless of relatives’ alleged affiliation with ISIS and should review internal intelligence procedures to remove existing obstacles.

The authorities should ensure that all staff working in Civil Status Directorate branches understand the law and the need not to discriminate. The Interior Ministry should send senior officials to monitor branches in former ISIS-controlled areas to ensure that security officers do not harass families. International protection agencies should consider enhanced monitoring of the treatment of these families.

“The Iraqi government has valid security concerns that ISIS members sought for serious crimes should not be able to get fake identity documents,” Fakih said. “But keeping women and children who did nothing wrong beyond having a relative join ISIS out of work, out of school, and in fear of arrest every day will do nothing to foster reconciliation in Iraq.”

Source:Human Rights Watch