Syria's al-Hol camp readies first return of Syrian detainees, director says

QAMISHLI, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Kurdish-led authorities who run a sprawling camp for Islamic State-linked prisoners in northeast Syria are preparing the first-ever return of detainees to Syrian areas, the camp director said, a move enabled by the fall of the Assad regime.

Al-Hol camp director Jihan Hanan said preparations were under way for the voluntary return of 66 families from the massive tent city, where the vast majority of inmates are women and children, to areas inside Syria.

She did not comment on whether the returns were being planned in coordination with Syria’s new ruling authority, set up by the Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, after they ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8, 2023.

Talks facilitated by the U.S. and France are under way to determine the future of the Kurdish-led force that controls northeast Syria. The new Syrian ruling authority has said it would seek to assert control over the entirety of the country.

Packed with families linked to Islamic State after the extremist Sunni Muslim group’s defeat in Syria in 2019, the al-Hol camp now has a population of around 40,000.

It is widely viewed as a breeding ground for extremism and a major security concern for regional states, chiefly neighbouring Iraq, where Islamic State at one point controlled about a third of the country.

Camp authorities, led by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, have long called on countries to repatriate citizens in the camp, which hosts thousands of foreigners.

Iraq has repatriated more than 10,000, according to Iraqi officials, but few Western states have shown interest in following suit.

Of those currently in the camp, nearly 16,000 are Syrians, Jihan said.

Returning detainees to Syria under Assad was seen as taboo, given U.S. opposition to his rule and concerns about torture and killings in the Syrian government’s notorious prison system.

The SDF also runs a jail at Hasakah in northern Syria that holds about 4,500 ISIS fighters, including many foreigners.