ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Authorities in northeast Syria (Rojava) have announced that they will be removing Syrians from al-Hol camp, and abdicating responsibility for the remaining foreign nationals in the overcrowded tent city.
“A decision will be issued to empty the Syrians from the camp completely. Those who remain in the camp will not be the responsibility of the self-administration,” Elham Ahmad, President of the Executive Committee of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), told a symposium on Sunday, describing the camp as a “heavy burden on the shoulders” of the autonomous administration.
In a tweet published on Monday evening, Ahmed specified that "only the Syrian families who wish to leave al-Hol camp are free to leave. The families of foreign fighters and Syrians who have serious accusations will remain in the camp".
Approximately 68,000 people – including Syrians and Iraqis as well as those of foreign nationality – live in al-Hol camp. Nearly two thirds, approximately 43,000, are children.
Conditions at al-Hol, home to the vast majority of ISIS-linked women and children, have been almost universally recognized as unsuitable, with poor sanitary conditions and overcrowding. Human Rights Watch (HRW) detailed the "filthy and often inhuman and life-threatening conditions" at the camp in a report published in June.
Reports of residents attempting to flee the camp’s desperate conditions have proliferated in recent weeks.
“The Self-Administration does not have to pay exorbitant sums in order to provide these people with food and other things. Besides, the problems that arise daily including assassinations, rape, and so on,” said the SDC official.
Ahmed added that officials would be asking the Legislative Council to issue a general amnesty for Syrians released, noting that this would be “according to verdict and offense.”
Camp authorities have already been slowly releasing Syrian camp residents back into society. Over two hundred people from the province of Deir ez-Zor were released on Wednesday.
The SDC administers the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES).
The body has been hosting a series of symposiums to access the standards of the NES’ governing systems and operations. In an attempt to move away from the “favoritism and quota system” of neighbouring countries, officials said they are open to qualified professionals joining their ranks at Wednesday’s symposium.
Updated at 11:46 pm
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