Kurdish authorities transfer 21 orphans from Syria’s Al-Hol camp

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Syrian Kurdish authorities have transferred 21 foreign orphans of Islamic State (ISIS)-affiliated parents from the overcrowded Al-Hol camp to the better equipped Roj camp in Hasaka, an official confirmed to Rudaw on Saturday.

The transfer was made when the management team at Al-Hol grew “concerned about the future of a large number of children at the camp,” said Abdulkarim Omer, co-chair of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES)’s Department of Foreign Relations.

“The Roj camp is better equipped and suitable for children to provide them with a good education,” Omer said.

“It was very difficult to deal with those children in a proper way due to the lack of education facilities and trained specialists at Al-Hol,” he said.

“We are calling on foreign countries to take back their children because their presence in the Al-Hol camp will result in negative consequences for their future,” he added.

According to AFP, citing Al-Hol camp official Jaber Mustafa, some of the transferred orphans are of French, Egyptian, and Dagestani origin.

Until the 21 children were moved, some 224 orphans were living in Al-Hol camp.

At the request of Paris, the two French children are to be handed over to a representative of the French government who will then repatriate them to France, another official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

Al-Hol in northeast Syria shelters around 75,000 people, many of whom fled the last ISIS holdout of Baghouz in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province when it fell to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in March 2019.

Among them are thousands of wives and children of ISIS fighters from Syria, Iraq, and western countries. More than two-thirds are children.

Human Rights Watch reported “dire” camp conditions in October 2019. Around 340 children have died at the camp as a result of poor medical facilities, malnutrition, and hypothermia, according to the International Rescue Committee. 

At least 12,000 Al-Hol residents are foreign nationals. Their repatriation from Syria and Iraq has sparked intense debate in Europe and beyond, particularly in cases involving children.

European countries, fearful their radicalized citizens could pose a security risk if they are permitted to return, have in many cases refused to take them back. However, France, Belgium, Germany and Denmark are some of the countries who have taken back children born to ISIS-affiliated parents.