Urgent political action needed at Al Hol camp, says ICRC
Urgent political action is needed to ensure more than 50,000 residents of Al Hol camp in northern Syria have a way out, the International Committee of the Red Cross has said.
Al Hol, the largest displacement camp in the country, holds mostly Syrians and Iraqis, but is also home to thousands of Europeans and Asians with suspected ties to ISIS.
Those in the camp must be considered by the international community and nation states as “human beings” to ensure their safe repatriation, Suhair Zakkout, an ICRC spokeswoman in Syria, told The National.
“The most important thing and the concern of the ICRC is that countries and governments should not turn their backs on the population and their citizens who are inside and to start thinking and dealing with these women and children,” she said.
Some are family members of suspected ISIS militants, while others are displaced Syrians and Iraqi refugees, she said.
It is hard to know the exact number of people linked to ISIS. It has been estimated that the camp holds 23,000 Syrians, nearly 27,000 Iraqis and about 10,000 people from about 60 other countries, including the UK, according to Human Rights Watch.
“As human beings we have to show the human side to not let those people down by just forgetting them,” Ms Zakkout said.
“We are not touching upon any legality or any legitimacy of those people.
“What we are talking about is humanity and this is what we all share together when dealing with this population.” For years, the ICRC, the UN and other prominent aid agencies have been calling on countries to repatriate their citizens held inside the camp.
But some European countries have denied the requests. France, for example, refused to repatriate some French women and children last year.
Paris had argued that citizens who joined extremist networks in Syria and Iraq would pose security risks if returned home.
The move was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights, which said there should be safeguards against any potentially “arbitrary” decision-making.
Kurdish officials in Syria who run the camp said keeping it open posed a security risk and they urged the international community to increase efforts to enable the safe and dignified repatriation of their citizens.