'Real danger, ticking bomb:' Children staying at al-Hol camp

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior Iraqi official on Thursday warned of the threat of children residing in the notorious al-Hol camp in northeast Syria (Rojava), describing their prolonged stay as a "ticking bomb." 

In a meeting with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Iraq’s National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji described the presence of children at al-Hol camp as a “real danger,” and a “ticking bomb,” reported state media.

“The biggest victims of conflict are women and children,” Araji said.

Araji stressed the readiness of the Iraqi government to cooperate with international organizations to repatriate children.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested thousands of ISIS fighters and their wives and children when they took control of the group’s last stronghold in Syria in March 2019. Most of these people are held at al-Hol, which is home to more than 60,000 people - mostly women and children of different nationalities.

Eight hundred Iraqi refugees returned home from Rojava on Thursday. 

Over one hundred ISIS-affiliated families left al-Hol in January. 

Al-Hol has been branded a breeding ground for terrorism, with human rights groups warning of squalid conditions at the camp.

There have been repeated calls from Kurdish and US officials asking the international community to repatriate their nationals from al-Hol, but only a few countries have responded positively as they are worried about security concerns.

Amnesty International in November renewed its repatriation calls in a report, saying children held in al-Hol camp “have been arbitrarily deprived of their liberty and exposed to life-threatening and inhumane conditions.