ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Syrian government will assume control of al-Hol and shift focus to rehabilitation of the thousands of suspected Islamic State (ISIS) sympathizers and family members being held in the camp in northeast Syria, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said on Saturday.
“Regarding the al-Hol camp issue, it is part of the agreement signed between the Presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic and the Syrian Democratic Forces, which stipulates that the Syrian Arab Republic will assume control over all areas in the Syrian Jazira region - namely, in Hasakah and Raqqa areas,” Interior Ministry spokesperson Nouraldeen Albaba told Rudaw in a press conference on Saturday.
The goal will be to ensure the camp is no longer a source of unrest and extremism. “Now, it will become a comprehensive societal rehabilitation dossier targeting the victims and families of individuals who joined ISIS,” he said.
Al-Hol camp in Hasaka province is infamous for its squalid conditions and has been branded a breeding ground for terrorism. Iraqis and Syrians make up the majority of the 40,000 ISIS-linked people who have been held at the camp since the defeat of the group in 2019. There are also people in the camp from around the world who had traveled to join the so-called ISIS caliphate.
A delegation from the Syrian government visited al-Hol camp on Saturday, according to local media. The delegation consisted of 10 people and was the first visit to the camp by the interim government. They were also joined by representatives from the US-led global coalition against ISIS, Ronahi TV reported.
The purpose of the visit was to inspect conditions in the camp and explore returning Syrian nationals to their home regions, according to Ronahi, which is affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) in January announced that its doors are open to the “voluntary return” of Syrians in the camp to their hometowns. Iraq has been repatriating its nationals in groups, putting them through a rehabilitation program before they return to their original homes.
Rojava authorities also have thousands of ISIS fighters detained in jails.
United States President Donald Trump, when he met interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa last week, urged him to assume responsibility for ISIS detention centres in Rojava. The newly-appointed US envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack noted progress Damascus has taken on meeting Trump’s request when he met Sharaa in Istanbul on Saturday.
