A new convoy of Syrian residents left al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria on Sunday, comprising people with humanitarian cases such as chronic illnesses, who were returning to their home provinces.
Jihan Hanan, director of al-Hol camp, told The New Arab’s Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the convoy included “12 families, totalling 55 people, most of them women and children”, adding that it was “the third such convoy since June”.
The latest group is returning to the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib, Homs, Deir ez-Zor, Damascus, and Daraa.
According to Hanan, the first convoy of Syrian residents departed the camp in June and included 42 families—160 people in total—while a second left in July with 36 families consisting of 127 people from Homs, Aleppo, and Raqqa.
The return was coordinated between the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, the Syrian government, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with oversight from the NGO Stabilization Support Unit and other humanitarian organisations.
At the end of May, a trilateral meeting was held in al-Hasakah province between representatives of the Autonomous Administration, the Syrian government, and the international coalition, where a joint mechanism was agreed upon to gradually evacuate Syrians from al-Hol.
The decision followed a visit by a Syrian government delegation that included representatives from the ministries of foreign affairs and interior, as well as officials from the security and counterterrorism agencies, accompanied by coalition representatives.
Located in an area under the control of the Autonomous Administration near the Iraqi border, al-Hol camp covers more than three square kilometres. It currently houses around 27,000 people, including about 15,000 Syrians, 5,000 Iraqis, and 6,300 foreign women and children from 42 different countries.
The camp, which has long been a humanitarian concern, was originally established for displaced Iraqis in 1991 and later became home to thousands of families linked to fighters from the Islamic State (IS) group following the fall of its self-proclaimed caliphate in 2019.
