Syrian Authorities Close Al-Hol Camp, Emptying Facility That Housed Thousands of ISIS-Linked Families
Syrian authorities closed al-Hol camp after relocating all residents, including families of suspected ISIS fighters, following the government’s takeover of the facility from Kurdish administrators.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Syrian authorities have closed al-Hol camp, which for years housed relatives of suspected ISIS fighters, after emptying the facility, a camp official told AFP on Sunday.
“All Syrian and non-Syrian families were relocated,” Fadi al-Qassem, the official appointed by the government to manage al-Hol’s affairs, told AFP.
Al-Hol, located in a desert region of Hasakeh province, had been Syria’s largest camp for relatives of suspected ISIS fighters.
Last month, the government took control of the camp from its Kurdish administrators, who had long managed it, as Kurdish forces ceded territory and Damascus extended its authority across swathes of Syria’s northeast.
Since the takeover, thousands of family members of foreign jihadists have departed for unknown destinations.
The facility had housed approximately 24,000 people, mostly Syrians, in addition to Iraqis and more than 6,000 other foreigners from around 40 nationalities.
Qassem said security forces were searching tents for any remaining families.
Earlier in the week, authorities began evacuating the remaining residents, transferring them to a camp in Akhtarin in northern Aleppo province. Some families were taken elsewhere, without further details on their destination.
“The camp’s residents are children and women who need support for their reintegration,” Qassem said.
A source from a humanitarian organization that had been active in the camp told AFP: “We evacuated all our teams working inside the camp, dismantled all our equipment and prefabricated rooms and moved them out of the camp.”
Last week, the US military announced it had completed the transfer of thousands of ISIS suspects, including Syrians and Western nationals, to Iraq after they had been held for years in Kurdish-run prisons in northeastern Syria.
Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that the approximately 5,700 transferred detainees “are at risk of enforced disappearance, unfair trials, torture, ill-treatment, and violations of the right to life.”
Kurdish authorities had repeatedly called on countries to repatriate their citizens, but most states repatriated only limited numbers, citing security concerns and potential domestic political backlash.
The closure of al-Hol marks the end of one of Syria’s most prominent camps linked to families of suspected ISIS fighters.