Thousands of people have fled Syria’s Al Hol camp, which houses families with alleged ISIS ties, since its handover from Kurdish-led authorities to the Syrian government in January, sparking fears over the possible escape of extremists.
A government source told The National on Monday that civil defence teams had entered the sprawling camp – which hosted about 24,000 people, mostly women and children – in north-eastern Syria to transfer the remaining families to Akhtarin camp in northern Aleppo.
A first convoy transferred the families to the new camp on Monday evening.
Akhtarin is not designed as a high-security detention centre, unlike Al Hol, which also held displaced Syrians and Iraqis with no affiliation to ISIS, who fled the fighting.
Al Hol also contained an “Annexe” for high-risk foreigners, holding about 6,000 women and children from 42 countries who travelled to Syria during the civil war and were known for holding more radical views than other residents.
It is now reportedly almost empty, with many families said to have relocated to Idlib. Social media posts suggest they relied on fund-raising campaigns and smuggling networks as camp security loosened in recent weeks.
Some former Al Hol residents have documented their escape on social media. “First snack since freedom,” one woman, who goes by the handle “Tajir Muhajir” and said she came to Syria 10 years ago, wrote in a Telegram story alongside a picture of a half-eaten sandwich and a bottle of juice.
The National could not confirm her real identity. In another post, she thanked “everyone involved” in what she described as the “tremendous amount of work” behind their “liberation” from the camp.
'Significant decrease' in residents
Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, the UN High Commission for Refugees’ representative in Syria, said the agency “has observed a significant decrease in the number of residents in Al Hol camp in recent weeks".
He said Syrian authorities had informed the UNHCR of plans to relocate families to Akhtarin camp.
“UNHCR will continue to support the return and reintegration of Syrians who have departed Al Hol, as well as those who remain,” Mr Losa said.
Jihan Hanan, the director of Al Hol camp until last month, told The National she had been told that all its residents had “escaped or left”. She said she was unable to access the site, as were the NGOs that previously provided assistance to residents.
“None of them are going to work there any more,” Ms Hanan said.
According to reports, only a few hundred families remain in the camp, although no official data has been provided.
The breakout of ISIS-linked inmates from camps and prisons once run by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led force, has for years been a concern for the international community.
Last month, about 200 ISIS prisoners escaped from another prison during Damascus’s blitz offensive against SDF-controlled territory in north-east Syria. Most of the inmates have since been recaptured, but the escape has heightened concerns over ISIS regrouping across Syria and Iraq.
The US military has announced the transfer of thousands of detainees to prisons in Iraq, indicating Washington’s concern over Syria's ability to ensure security.
On Monday, Syrian Kurdish forces released 34 Australians from the much smaller Al Roj camp, which holds about 2,300 family members of suspected ISIS fighters and is under SDF control. But they were turned back due to a communications breakdown.
The Annexe escape
Human rights groups have long decried the camp’s dire conditions, which The National has documented during two visits. They tell of shortages of basic supplies and very limited access to medical care and education.
The camp has also been denounced as a site of illegal and arbitrary detention, with its residents never tried or charged. Foreign countries have also shown little interest in repatriating their nationals, leaving them in limbo for years.
It is home to thousands of children, some born there, who have never known anything other than the dilapidated tents.
“Ultimately, all policymakers and officials involved in the Al Hol file have always sought to empty the camp – but not in the way events have unfolded in recent weeks,” Syria expert Charles Lister wrote on his website.
Interviews with residents and social media posts revealed the chaos that allowed mass departure from the camp.
On January 20, SDF forces withdrew from the camp as Syrian troops moved closer to the area, leaving a security vacuum.
Amid the turmoil, residents told The National last month that foreigners from the Annexe broke through the fencing and mixed with the rest of the camp’s population.
“Many have left and managed to escape. Some are still in the Syrian-Iraqi camp, others remain in our camp, the foreigners’ camp,” read a screenshot from a message in Russian dated January 20 and shared on Tajir Muhajir's Telegram channel.
The Russian-speaking channel, created in September 2025, says it aims to raise awareness for “brothers and sisters who left their homes for the sake of faith and ended up in captivity". Russian is widely spoken among foreign detainees in Al Hol, where many ISIS-linked families originate from the North Caucasus and Central Asia.
The National visited Al Hol on January 21. A day after the SDF left, the situation remained tense amid reports of breakouts, looting and violence, with thick smoke billowing from inside the centre. Residents told The National they expected to be released soon.
Syrian security forces had surrounded the camp but had yet to enter.
A Turkmen woman told The National that some foreign families had managed to escape, but that most later returned to the Annexe.
This appeared to be confirmed in another message shared by the same Telegram account on January 21, in which a Russian-speaking woman said those who escaped “were returned to the foreigners’ camp” by Syrian forces.
She expressed frustration with the Damascus government. “No one freed us,” she said. “The authorities simply changed once again. They do not want freedom for us or our children.”
Most of the escapes appear to have occurred in the following days.
Smuggling network
On January 23, the UNHCR was able to access the camp alongside government officials, and the provision of basic services gradually resumed with UN involvement.
On February 2, the owner of the Tajir Muhajir page said she had been able to leave Al Hol. “Patience tastes bitter, but its fruits are sweet, from Idlib,” she wrote, alongside a picture taken in the centre of the city.
It remains unclear how she was able to leave the camp. Syrian local outlet Nahr Media reported that smuggling from Al Hol relied on a co-ordinated network involving local brokers arranging exits in exchange for payment, families in hometowns, and tribal members and security personnel enabling flexibility at checkpoints.
The National could not verify the claim.
On Instagram, pages have launched fund-raising campaigns to help families leaving Al Hol.
One Russian-language account, describing itself as a charity, said it had distributed $3,100 to families who left the camp, urging further support for people still “in captivity” and those recently released.
The “Pomosh Umme” page, which translates roughly as “Help to the Ummah”, or the Muslim community, shows pictures of dozens of beneficiaries posing with signs indicating the date, as early as January 31, the amount they received, and the location, consistently listed as Idlib.
Fears remain over whether these families could pose security threats or reintegrate into society after years spent without prospects.
While the SDF has long emphasised the security risks posed by camps holding ISIS families, describing them as a “ticking time bomb”, often to rally international support, Damascus portrays the issue as primarily a humanitarian one.
“In truth, the reality lies somewhere in between,” Mr Lister wrote. “It is highly likely now that some number of ISIS-loyal women will seek to re-establish contact with the likes of ISIS.
“It is also likely that a great many will attempt to re-establish new lives inside Syria – though they will face significant challenges in reintegrating amid great stigma."
Contrary to widespread belief, many residents outside the Annexe were not held in Al Hol because they were ISIS members, but civilians uprooted by violence. Last month, The National met Ala Saleh, 30, a civilian who had taken refuge in the camp. “It was supposed to be temporary. It’s been seven years,” he said, speaking from behind the fence.
Since the takeover, he has managed to leave the camp because of his mother’s serious illness and the lack of medical care inside.
“For the first time in my life, I feel freedom and clean air,” Mr Saleh told The National by phone. “We were in a prison. We couldn’t breathe.”
But the path ahead remains long. With a sick mother and no job, he now faces the task of rebuilding his life.
