Annexe holding 6,000 women and children is now mostly empty, raising security and humanitarian concerns
Most of the foreign families of suspected Islamic State fighters have left al-Hawl camp since the Syrian government took control of the facility, prompting security and humanitarian concerns over their whereabouts.
About 6,000 women and children from 42 different countries were previously held in the foreigners’ annexe of al-Hawl camp in north-east Syria, which housed some of the most radical former members of the extremist group. The foreigners’ annexe was separate from the part of the camp that contained about 20,000 Syrians and Iraqis.
All of those held in the camp are arbitrarily detained as they have not been tried or charged for their alleged involvement in IS, and many of the residents are young children.
On Friday, humanitarian groups said the foreigners’ annexe had been emptied almost entirely of its former residents and that most of the families left for Idlib. They said foreign women and children had been gradually leaving the foreigners’ annexe since the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) abandoned the facility to the advancing Syrian government forces on 20 January.
