Iraqi refugee shot dead in Syria's al-Hol camp

The number of such violent incidents in the camp has markedly increased.

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2022/05/01 21:54

A local market in the sprawling al-Hol displacement camp in northeast Syria, July 9, 2019 (Photo: Wladimir van Wilgenburg/Kurdistan 24)

Syria Save the Children Al-Hol Camp ISIS

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Internal Security Forces ('Asayish' in Kurdish) have found the body of an Iraqi refugee shot dead by ISIS cells in the first section of northeast Syria's notorious al-Hol camp, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor reported on Sunday.

The number of such violent incidents in the camp has markedly increased. On Apr. 22, the Rojava Information Centre (RIC) reported that seven people were killed there in just three days.

According to data from the UN, al-Hol is the largest camp for refugees and internally displaced people in Syria, hosting about 56,000 people.

Most of al-Hol's residents are Iraqis and Syrians, but the camp also includes many foreign families thought to have links to the Islamic State.

Save the Children recently called for urgent efforts to support the safe, voluntary, and dignified return home of Syrian and Iraqi families from al-Hol and repatriations of children of foreign fighters and their mothers back to their home countries.

"The level of violence they experience in Al Hol on a daily basis is appalling," Save the Children's Syria Response Director Sonia Khush said in the press statement.

"Insecurity in the camp needs to be effectively addressed without adding more stress and fear to these children's lives, and they urgently need access to more psychosocial support to cope with their experiences," she added.