Syria has an opportunity to empty its 'ISIS camps' for good

Women walking at Al Hol camp in October, 2023. Set up by the UN in 1991 to shelter Iraqi refugees fleeing the fallout from the Gulf War, the camp has become one of Syria’s most complex humanitarian and security challenges. AFPShow less

As a country in the throes of great change, Syria is a place where threats to stability come in two forms: acute and chronic. Despite the fall of the Bashar Al Assad government last year, the risk of sudden violence is high; on Sunday, thousands of protesters from the Alawite minority took to the streets days after a mosque bombing killed eight people.

There is also a longer-term danger – the fact that an estimated 14,000 to 16,000 Syrians, including women and children, languish in camps such as Al Hol, deep in the Syrian desert. Originally set up by the UN in 1991 to shelter Iraqi refugees fleeing the fallout from the Gulf War, Al Hol was repurposed to hold female relatives of ISIS members and sympathisers, as well as civilians who sought refuge during intense bombing campaigns against the militants in 2018 and 2019. Since then, it has become one of Syria’s most complex humanitarian and security challenges.

Survivors of a Syrian camp for 'ISIS families' seek to rebuild their lives

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Administered by embattled Kurdish-led forces, conditions in Al Hol and similar camps are problematic in the extreme. Hardened foreign and local ISIS adherents are held alongside civilians, including children born there who have never experienced the outside world. The sense of social isolation is profound; as Muzer Al Salloul, executive director of a Syrian NGO called the Stabilisation Support Unit, told The National recently: “The children and women are not guilty of anything, but if the community continues to reject them, they will become vulnerable to recruitment by ISIS.”

Mitigating that risk should be a priority for all those who are invested in Syria’s future. Encouragingly, there are signs that measures are being taken. About 90 Syrian families have been allowed to leave Al Hol in the past six months, after Kurdish-led forces struck a deal with the central government in Damascus for their evacuation, thereby ending years of displacement. However, these families are re-entering a society that has changed utterly since the civil war and their successful reintegration cannot be taken for granted.

Children will need remedial education; their carers will need an income and host communities will have to be prepared for the arrival of more former detainees. This requires training, resources and other forms of support. Although some have stepped up – Mr Al Salloul says the US has helped with these so-called departure programmes – NGOs such as the Stabilisation Support Unit say funding promises from other parties have not been kept.

Children will need remedial education; their carers will need an income and host communities will have to be prepared for the arrival of more former detainees

Although outside investment in Syria’s infrastructure and economy is vital for the country’s future, helping Syrian families who were held for years in forbidding detention camps is equally important for stability. These camps have been tolerated for much too long and the country’s changed circumstances mean there are now fewer barriers to reintegration efforts. Indeed, some regional countries with significant challenges of their own have stepped up – Iraq, for example, has repatriated more than 18,000 of its citizens, partially easing the situation.

This is an opportunity that should not be missed, and it is the children of Al Hol especially who have most to gain. Syria’s new start should be for all its people.