ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Security forces (Asayish) caught four Russian female Islamic State (ISIS) prisoners in a failed escape attempt from Al-Hol camp on Tuesday, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
“Four Russian women with four of their sons were attempting to escape from Al-Hol camp,” SOHR reported.
According to SOHR, the female prisoners coordinated their escape with a water tanker driver working for the Syrian Red Crescent.
Several women have attempted to escape in a similar manner, with the North Press Agency obtaining footage of women hiding in a water tanker in June before being apprehended by authorities.
This is the second escape attempt at the camp in less than a week.
Five women were caught attempting to escape with seven of their children but were also stopped by Asayish, according to SOHR.
Located in northeast Syria’s Hasaka province, approximately 68,000 people live in al-Hol camp. 90 percent are women and children.
Most residents are Iraqis and Syrians, half of whom are believed to have links to the terror group, after they were arrested during the liberation of ISIS territories during the campaign to oust the group from its last holdout in the Syrian town of Baghouz in March 2019.
About 10,000 ISIS-related suspects in the camp are foreign nationals, according to data published by Rojava Information Center.
Officials from the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) have said that they and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are unable to cope with managing al-Hol, urging the international community to repatriate their nationals or help facilitate trials of suspected ISIS members in northeast Syria, known to Kurds as Rojava. However, only a few countries have responded positively.
On a case-by-case basis, Azerbaijan, France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, and Russia’s Chechnya, among others have taken back several children born to ISIS-affiliated parents.
However, many countries are reluctant to repatriate women and children on a larger scale.
