Humanitarian

6 people killed in Syria's al-Hol camp in May: SOHR

"We also urge international human rights organisations to put an immediate and serious plan for rehabilitating women and children in the camp."

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2022/06/06 20:09

A security guard watches displaced Syrians leaving al-Hol camp on Jan. 19, 2021. (Photo: Internal Security Forces)

Syria Al-Hol Camp SDC Iraqi refugees IDPs

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A total of six people were killed in northeast Syria's notorious al-Hol camp in May, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor reported on Sunday.

The victims were an Iraqi male and female refugee, three displaced Syrians, two of them women, and an unidentified woman.

"Accordingly, the number of murders documented in the camp since early 2022 has risen to 16," SOHR noted.

This included six Iraqis, five Syrians, four unidentified women, and one medic.

According to data from the UN, al-Hol is the largest camp for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Syria, hosting about 56,000 people. Most of al-Hol's residents are Iraqis and Syrians. However, the camp also houses many foreign families thought to have ISIS links.

SOHR said that in the last three months, no Syrians left al-Hol as part of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) initiative to reduce pressure on the sprawling camp by repatriating Iraqis and returning displaced Syrians to their homes.

"However, in January 2022, 22 families of nearly 217 people left the camp as a part of the initiative by 'Syrian Democratic Council' (SDC) to evacuate Syrians from Al-Hawl camp, where these families were transported to Deir Ezzor province," read the SOHR report.

Iraq also repatriated more than 152 Iraqi families from the camp on Wednesday.

SOHR reiterated its call for "a lasting solution" to the situation in al-Hol.

"We also urge international human rights organisations to put an immediate and serious plan for rehabilitating women and children in the camp, who were saturated with ISIS ideology, especially with a large number of children and the widespread presence of the group cells in the camp that continue to impart their poisonous ideas to the residents of the camp, particularly women and children," the war monitor said.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), met with the Syrian government to discuss the situation in the al-Hol camp on Saturday.