UNHCR says al-Hol camp residents have declined as families relocate to Akhtarin

Syria’s Al-Hol camp has seen a sharp drop in residents in recent weeks, the U.N. refugee agency said, as the Syrian government moves to relocate families remaining there. The agency said Syrian authorities notified it of a plan to move the remaining families to Akhtarin camp in Aleppo Governorate, and that UNHCR is ready to provide assistance for the new placement.

In a statement, Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR’s representative in Syria, said the agency “has observed a significant decrease in the number of residents in Al-Hol camp in recent weeks.” Vargas Llosa said Syrian authorities have informed UNHCR of the relocation plan and have requested UNHCR support to help the population after the move.

Vargas Llosa also said UNHCR “will continue to support the return and reintegration of Syrians who have departed Al-Hol, as well as those who remain.” The statement did not provide details on how residents had left the camp or the current number of families still in Al-Hol.

The agency said the population change may reflect multiple factors. Many families are believed to have escaped during the chaos around the end of last month’s takeover, when government forces captured the camp from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, and afterward.

At its peak after the defeat of Islamic State in Syria in 2019, about 73,000 people had been living at Al-Hol. Since then, the population declined as some countries repatriated their citizens, and the remaining residents have been described as mostly children and women, including many wives or widows of Islamic State members.

While the residents are not technically prisoners and most have not been accused of crimes, UNHCR and others have described the situation as de facto detention inside the heavily guarded facility. The U.N. statement did not alter that characterization, but it emphasized UNHCR’s role in the relocation and in return and reintegration support.

Separately, thousands of accused Islamic State militants held in detention centers in northeastern Syria have been transferred to Iraq to stand trial under an agreement with the United States. The U.S. military said Friday it had completed the transfer of more than 5,700 adult male Islamic State suspects from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody, and Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation said 5,704 suspects from 61 countries affiliated with Islamic State were transferred from prisons in Syria and are now being interrogated in Iraq.