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Syrian authorities have shut down the Al-Hol displacement camp, once the country's largest facility housing relatives of suspected Daesh fighters, after completing the evacuation of all remaining residents.
Fadi al-Qassem, the government-appointed official overseeing the camp, confirmed the closure to AFP on Sunday. "All Syrian and non-Syrian families were relocated," he said, adding that security forces were conducting final sweeps of the tents for any remaining occupants.
Located in a remote desert stretch of Hasakeh province in northeastern Syria, Al-Hol had long served as a sprawling holding site for families linked to suspected Daesh militants. At its peak, the facility held some 24,000 people, the majority of them Syrian nationals alongside Iraqi residents and more than 6,000 foreigners representing roughly 40 nationalities.
Earlier this week, authorities began evacuating the last residents, transporting them to a camp in Akhtarin in northern Aleppo province. Some families were taken to other locations that al-Qassem declined to specify. "The camp's residents are children and women who need support for their reintegration," he said.
Humanitarian organizations that had operated inside the facility also pulled out ahead of the closure. A source within one such organization told AFP that all teams had been withdrawn and equipment and prefabricated structures dismantled and removed.
The closure follows a separate but related development involving suspected Daesh fighters held in prisons across northeastern Syria. The US military said last week that it had completed the transfer of thousands of detainees, including Syrians and Western nationals, to Iraq after years of imprisonment.
Human Rights Watch warned on Tuesday that the approximately 5,700 transferred detainees face serious risks including enforced disappearance, unfair trials, torture, and violations of the right to life..
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