Iraqi families attempt to flee al-Hol camp

The al-Hol camp witnessed a security alert by the internal security forces in the camp, after Iraqi men escaped, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor reported on Tuesday.

“Yesterday, a camp source confirmed to RIC that 3 women and 7 children attempted to flee the camp, in thick fog conditions, but were caught. The source also said that one woman was Syrian, and wanted to return to her home, while 2 women were Iraqi and wanted to go to Turkey,” Samantha Teal from the Rojava Information Centre (RIC), told Kurdistan 24.“Furthermore, it has been reported that an unspecified number of Iraqi men successfully fled the camp, but RIC has been unable to independently verify this. A state of alert has been declared in the camp, which means more security personnel will be deployed to help guard.”

She added that “this situation shows once again the endemic difficulties and security challenges al-Hol camp faces.”She underlined that more aid and NGO assistance is needed in the camp. “The only long-term solution to these problems is for the camp to be disbanded, and the people residing in the camp to be re-integrated into their respective societies through a coordinated, international effort, in which all countries with nationals in the camp – particularly Iraq – take responsibility to repatriate their citizens.”

SOHR also reported that the “internal security forces are still searching for escapees in areas close to Al-Hol camp in Al-Hasakah countryside.”The Al-Hol camp is currently housing thousands of family members of ISIS, whose self-proclaimed caliphate was defeated in 2019 in Syria by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and the US-led Coalition to Defeat ISIS.

Source: kurdistan24