Syrian detainee camp a ‘massive outdoor prison’

Thousands of civilians have been trapped indefinitely by global counter-terrorism policies in the largest detainee camp in north-eastern Syria, exposing inmates to dire conditions, insecurity and risk, according Médecins San Frontiers. In a 27-page report entitled Between two Fires: Danger and Desperation in Syria’s al-Hol Camp, Médecins San Frontiers (MSF), which has been present in the camp since 2019, blames the situation on members of the US-led coalition against Islamic State, also known as Isis, and the US-sponsored Kurdish forces which administer the camp.

According to MSF: “Members of the Global Coalition, as well as other countries whose nationals remain held in Al-Hol, and other detention facilities and camps in north east Syria, have failed to take responsibility for protecting their nationals or for identifying long-term solutions to their indefinite containment. Instead, they have delayed or simply refused to repatriate all their nationals, in some cases going so far as to strip them of their citizenship, rendering them stateless.”

The report says that overall, no measures have been taken to ensure the fundamental rights of the camp’s population are protected.

The camp contains more than 53,000 people from 60 nationalities, mainly women and children. Although the majority of the people in the camp are Syrian and Iraqi, there are 11,000 people from Britain, Australia, China, Spain, France, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Sweden, Malaysia and elsewhere. They are held in a reserved section of the camp called The Annex.

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MSF Syria operations manager Martine Flokstra describes Al-Hol as a “massive outdoor prison” where children, many born there, make up 64 per cent of inmates. Children are “robbed of their childhoods and condemned to a life exposed to violence and exploitation, with no education, limited medical support and no hope in sight”.

Killings by violent, armed criminal gangs amount to 38 per cent of fatalities and are the main cause of death.

Al-Hol was established in 1991 to provide accommodation for Iraqis fleeing the 1991 US-led war. It was expanded to take in escapees from Islamic State-held cities and towns which fell to the coalition in 2019. MSF said this influx “led to the entire population of the camp being perceived as being affiliated with [Islamic State]” and loyal to its ideology. While this is true of some who seek to subjugate others, many women have told MSF they are not ideologues but fighters’ widows and wives who had no choice but to follow husbands and argue their children are blameless.

Camp residents feel they are caught between criminal gangs with opaque ideological affiliations and excessively repressive measures by the camp’s security forces supported by the global coalition. Al-Hol is regarded by MSF as a legal “black hole” where inmates have no protection from criminals or the authorities.

While Syria and Iraq have freed limited numbers of their nationals, foreign female inmates do not want to leave unless their husbands and sons are freed and fear prison or death if repatriated to homelands reluctant to receive them.