Exodus of ISIL-linked detainees from Syria camp sparks security concerns
Al Jazeera
The al-Hol camp population is reported to have dropped by thousands after SDF’s chaotic handover to Syrian government.
The number of residents at one of Syria’s most notorious camps has dropped rapidly, going from about 24,000 earlier this year to the low thousands at most, humanitarian, diplomatic and local sources from the country’s northeast have told Al Jazeera.
The al-Hol camp, near the Syria-Iraq border, had held mostly internally displaced Syrians and approximately 6,000 third-country nationals with links to ISIL (ISIS). It was managed by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) before a government offensive in Syria’s northeast in January forced the SDF to withdraw.
Since then, the camp has ostensibly come under government control.
Details and accounts about how families and individuals exited the camp, which at its peak in 2019 held about 73,000 families, are contradictory. What is clear, according to sources on the ground, is that most Syrian nationals left al-Hol for their home towns, while many of the foreigners have travelled west to the government strongholds of Idlib or Aleppo governorates.
The uncertainty and lack of information have left analysts, diplomats and humanitarian workers with security and human rights concerns.
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