Ottawa promised to bring 10 members of Syria’s White Helmets to Canada. One year later, they languish in a Jordanian camp

Afrasianet - Last summer, Canada helped members of the famed rescue group escape from Syria and was supposed to welcome them to this country last fall. So why are they still in the Middle East and kept in near isolation?

Ten members of Syria’s famed White Helmets rescue group – who were supposed to have been resettled to Canada last fall – are being kept, along with their families, in semi-isolation in a special high-security zone of Jordan’s Azraq refugee camp while they await the outcome of a delicate diplomatic effort to find a country willing to take them in.

The reason for their limbo remains a closely guarded secret. Neither the Canadian nor Jordanian government answered questions from The Globe and Mail about the specific reasons the families were flagged as security risks by Canadian officials who visited Azraq last year.

A spokeswoman for the Jordan office of the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, said the focus is now on trying to find another country willing to accept them, an effort hindered by Canada’s assessment of the families.

A member of the White Helmets told The Globe that the families themselves did not know why they were still in Jordan. A reporter was not allowed to visit the part of the Azraq camp where the 10 families, 48 people in all, are being held.

Azraq, a vast field of tin shacks surrounded by metal fencing, is frequently compared to an open-air prison, with the camp’s 35,000 residents needing a permit to leave the camp, even briefly. The White Helmets families are being kept in what’s known as Village 2, the second-most secure part of Azraq. It’s an area off-limits to foreign reporters, one separated from other parts of the camp by several hundred metres of barren desert.

“We can never go out” of Village 2, said a White Helmets member who communicated with The Globe via text. He was granted anonymity so he wouldn’t face repercussions from Jordanian authorities. “We must respect the laws and regulations of Jordan while we are in their hospitality,” he said.

The White Helmets – who became famous by rescuing victims of air strikes carried out by the Syrian regime and its Russian allies – are considered among the few heroes of the Syrian civil war. They have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and were the subjects of an Oscar-winning documentary.

Because they film their rescue operations and post the videos online, they have played a crucial role in raising public awareness about the brutality of the war and the tactics – including the use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs – deployed by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian and Russian governments, meanwhile, claim the group is both a tool of Western intelligence and closely aligned with some of the armed groups fighting to oust Mr. al-Assad.

The government of Jordan granted The Globe permission to visit Azraq, but the authorization letter specifically stated that Village 2 – along with the even higher-security Village 5 – was out of bounds. The Globe was accompanied throughout the visit by a Jordanian security official who refused to answer questions about Village.