"All of the women here are radical."

"But the bigger problem is that the mothers are educating their kids according to the Islamic State ideology."

Hokmiya Ibrahim, administrator, Roj camp, Syria 

 

"Repatriation is the priority."

"We are aiming to return people to their countries, not just in al-Hol, but for all the camps inside northeast Syria. Everyone should go back home."

"This camp is a ticking time bomb. We’ve received intelligence from our allies in the international coalition, led by the United States, and from the Iraqi government, that ISIS [the Islamic State] is planning something. But we don’t know whether it will be an external attack or an uprising from within."

"We’re trying to address this together with the National Security Agency and the [U.N. Refugee Agency]."

"[But on the part of the new government], no steps have been taken to relocate these populations."

"Humanitarian cases in al-Hawl need urgent referral to Damascus or elsewhere and, for the past month and a half, we’ve seen no positive moves." 

Jihan Hanan, co-head, al-Hol camp, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces

 

"Many international organizations have programs for al-Hol, but when it comes to actually moving and supporting families, there is no one there in practice."

"Given the scale of needs and funding constraints, no returnee receives a full package of support immediately upon return. Resources simply do not allow for that."

Mounzer al-Salal, director, Syrian NGO Stabilization Support Unit (SSU) 

Families prepare to return to their hometowns from northeast Syria’s al-Hol camp, 27 April 2025. Reuters

 

"A massive fence confines 39,000 people, 11,000 of whom are foreign nationals. Of these, 95% are women and children — mostly relatives of Islamic State fighters — along with a number of other civilians displaced by war. The camp is divided into six sections. Sections 1 through 5 house about 33,000 Syrians and Iraqis. Section 6, which the camp’s director described as “the most dangerous,” holds the families of foreign fighters from over 42 countries."

"There are 24,000 minors in al-Hawl. Many were born behind barbed wire and have never seen the world beyond the camp. Seven thousand of these children are under 12 years old. As we drive in, children hurl stones at the armored vehicles driven by our escorts from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led militia coalition that has battled the Islamic State for years. Others hide. One boy raises his right index finger — a gesture often associated with the Islamic State."

"Since 2019, over 150 killings have been documented inside al-Hawl; an average of more than two murders per month. A few weeks ago, authorities discovered the mutilated remains of a woman in Section 6, partly mummified and discarded in a ditch between tents belonging to extremists."

New Lines Magazine 

Mostly women and children live in the al-Hol camp    BBC

 

Most of the detainees in the Al Hol Camp located in northeastern Syria where a fence with barbed wire surrounds the immense compound, are family members -- the wives, sisters and children -- of the Islamic State fighters imprisoned nearby. Prisons close by the women's prison house over 8,000 of the ISIS fighters. Kurdish-led Syrian forces supported by the United States fought to reclaim land in Syria that ISIS had ruled for years as well as in Iraq, when it established its 'Islamic Caliphate', planning to conquer ever greater tracts of land until it was finally brought to heel.

 

The Kurdish-led forces that had protected the minority groups such as Yazidis, Christians and their own from the  brutal Islamists detained thousands of ISIS fighters and tens of thousands of their relatives, many women who had entered Syria from abroad responding to an appeal from ISIS for 'brides' for their terrorist fighting men. Ever since that wind-down of ISIS and the capture and imprisonment of their cohorts, the Kurds have been left to the task of guarding them. Despite years-long appeals to the international community by the Kurds to repatriate their citizens, few have complied.

 

The United States, allied with the Kurds, is now preparing to completely withdraw their presence and expects the new government of Syria to take responsibility for the thousands of residents in the detention camps, part of its plans to have the  Syrian Democratic Forces led by  the Kurds merge with the reconstituted military of the Syrian government under one-time ISIS affiliate, President Ahmed Al Sharaa, once known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, in his earlier role as a bona fide jihadist. 

 

Although the Trump Administration has given the new Syrian administration a clean bill of health, that hasn't stopped the Al Sharaa military from aiding and abetting parts of its Sunni alliance jihadist militias in deadly reprisal attacks against the Syrian Alawites as well as Syrian Druze and Christians. Understandably, given the Kurdish experience with Sunni Jihadist militias and its battles over the years to free the geography from the hold of the Islamic State, the Kurds have little trust in the new government and its stated commitment to fight ISIS. 

 

The al-Hol camp holds families of alleged Islamic State fighters [Getty]

 

 Kurds view the likelihood that the former al-Qaeda-linked new government may turn the ISIS prisoners free, despite their public stance of battling ISIS. By no means is the Islamic State dead and gone as a violent ideological threat to global stability and security. It continues to target northeast Syria's Kurdish-led forces, expanding reach and frequency and lethality, reflecting the assessments by the UN and U.S. Two American soldiers were killed in one such attack in mid-December.

 

According to camp officials, ISIS operatives remain inside the camps, their focus that of radicalizing the children. Over 27,000 family members of ISIS fighters are held in Al Hol and nearby Roj camps. And while none of the women have been charged with  any crimes, the officials are under no illusion that many of these women are dangerous as ongoing proponents of the ISIS agenda, intent on teaching their children to become future acting members of the terrorist group. 

 

The most extreme of the detainees are those from countries outside the Middle East; Tajikistan, France and Russia; among them, about 6,000 women and children living separately in the camp, off limits to visitors. Violence and ill-health are the lot of the residents of the camp, where weapons are smuggled in and women and older adolescent boys attempt frequent escapes. Among the hundreds of vehicles entering daily with supplies, some carry human contraband out of the camp. 

 

"Every day people are fleeing, and it seems it is an organized operation", observed Al Hol administrator Jihan Hanan. 

  

All the residents at the camp are under indefinite detention, even though many have no links to the Islamic State and fled to the camp to escape the punishing U.S.-led bombing campaign. Photograph by Ivor Prickett