The United Nations refugee agency has announced a substantial reduction in the population of Syria's al-Hol camp, with Syrian authorities now preparing to transfer the remaining families to an alternative location. This development follows a period of significant upheaval in the region, marked by military operations and shifting control over the facility.
Significant Decrease in Camp Residents
Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR's representative in Syria, confirmed in a statement released on Sunday that the agency has observed a notable decline in the number of residents at Al-Hol camp in recent weeks. The statement did not specify exact figures regarding how many individuals have departed or how many remain, but it highlighted the scale of the change.
Many families are believed to have left during the chaos that ensued when Syrian government forces captured the camp from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces last month, or in the aftermath of that event. The camp, which at its peak housed approximately 73,000 people following the defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, has seen its numbers gradually decrease over time, partly due to some countries repatriating their citizens.
Relocation Plans and UN Support
Syrian authorities have informed UNHCR of their intention to relocate the remaining families to Akhtarin camp in Aleppo Governorate. They have requested the agency's support to assist the population in the new camp, to which UNHCR has expressed readiness to provide aid.
Vargas Llosa emphasized that UNHCR will continue to support the return and reintegration of Syrians who have departed Al-Hol, as well as those who remain. The residents of the camp, mostly children and women including many wives or widows of IS members, are not technically prisoners and most have not been accused of crimes, but they have been held in de facto detention at the heavily guarded facility.
Background and Recent Developments
Forces of Syria's central government captured the al-Hol camp on January 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been managing the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade. A ceasefire agreement has since ended the fighting in the area.
There was no immediate statement from the Syrian government regarding these developments, and a government spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment at the time of the UNHCR announcement.
Related Transfers of IS Suspects
In a separate but related matter, thousands of accused Islamic State militants who were held in detention centers in northeastern Syria have been transferred to Iraq to stand trial under an agreement with the United States. The U.S. military reported on Friday that it had completed the transfer of more than 5,700 adult male IS suspects from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody.
Iraq's National Center for International Judicial Cooperation stated that a total of 5,704 suspects from 61 countries, most of them Syrian and Iraqi and affiliated with IS, were transferred from prisons in Syria. These individuals are now being interrogated in Iraq as part of ongoing judicial processes.
