By Laith Al-jnaidi
DAMASCUS / ISTANBUL (AA) – Syria’s Interior Ministry said Wednesday that the Al-Hol camp in the northeastern Hasakah province looks closer to a “forced detention camp” than a displacement site, citing prolonged confinement and harsh living conditions.
“In the camp, we found thousands of people who have been detained for many years under harsh conditions,” ministry spokesman Nour al-Din al-Baba told a press conference.
He said children, women and elderly people make up nearly 70% of the detainees in the camp, adding that ending “this tragic chapter” represents a priority for his ministry.
“Many of the former detainees (in the camp) are civilians who fled conflict zones and were forcibly held on claims of ISIS (Daesh) links," Baba added.
The spokesman said that Syrian authorities have been working to address the humanitarian situation in the camp.
He said the Interior Ministry has mobilized efforts to restore security “by preventing chaos, sealing breaches in the perimeter fence, and securing the surroundings of the site.”
According to Baba, the camp currently houses about 6,500 people from 44 other nationalities, many of whom suffer from chronic illnesses and difficult health conditions.
He said the camp had previously hosted around 23,500 people.
“But when we entered the site, we found discrepancies between the circulated figures and the reality on the ground,” he noted.
“All reports about the camp require a thorough investigation and verification due to exaggerations in the reported numbers and identities of those present,” he said. “We will announce the accurate figures and statistics of those who will remain in the camp after completing verification and registration.”
The spokesman said more than 138 breaches were identified in the camp’s perimeter fence, which stretches nearly 17 kilometers, facilitating “unregulated exits.”
“Al-Hol camp is closer to a forced detention camp, and it is a tragic page that must be turned,” he said.
Al-Hol camp, located near the Syrian-Iraqi border in Hasakah province, was originally established to shelter Iraqi refugees following the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. It later fell under ISIS control in 2014 before being used to hold suspected members of the terror group and their families, alongside thousands of displaced Syrian and Iraqi civilians.
*Writing by Rania Abushamala in Istanbul.